Contradictions in the Understanding of Globalisation: A View through the Prism of Lenin's Theory of Imperialism

Abstract

After the Second World War supporters of the official mainstream sought to refute Lenin's theory of imperialism, checking it for "incompatibility with the facts". With the appearance in the 1980s of the concept of globalisation, the Leninist theory was relegated by these critics to the category of ideas that had been scientifically disproven. The analysis presented in this article shows that various theoretical versions of globalisation and of global capitalism are constructed on the basis of contradictory and methodologically doubtful ideas concerning the essential features of globalisation, of the sources from which it arose, and of its historical dynamics and limitations. As the main points in its discussion of the concept of globalisation, the article examines the controversies between empiricism and essentialism concerning the question of the essence of globalisation (culture or economics); the question of the sources of globalisation (technology, politics or productive relations); and the question of the trends in the dynamic of globalisation (toward full integration or growing antagonism). The authors further take up the controversy that pits abstract against concrete historicism on the question of the historical limits of globalisation. At the same time, the article reveals that in its richness and in the depth of its grasp of modern capitalism, Lenin's theory of imperialism up to the present has surpassed many present-day theories. Employing the theoretical heritage of Lenin makes it possible to provide, as the result of analysis, a comprehensive and methodologically precise definition of globalisation.