Imperialism and the development myth: How rich countries dominate in the twenty-first century (Progress in Political Economy)

"Over a hundred years since the beginning of modern imperialism, the former colonial world is still prevented from joining the club of imperialist powers. The gap between rich and poor countries is not narrowing but growing. China is usually presented as challenging the dominance of the United States and other rich countries. However, imperialist domination over the most sophisticated aspects of the labour process gives the rich countries and their corporations control over the global labour process as a whole – including in China. Third World producers are forced to specialise in the opposite types of work – in relatively simple and low-end labour, for which major price markups and large profits are rarely possible. This is the kernel of unequal exchange in world trade. The imperialist system develops two types of capital – monopoly and non-monopoly capital – and two types of societies – rich, monopoly, imperialist societies and poor, non-monopoly, ‘Third World’ societies. China’s ascendance to become the most powerful Third World country in no way threatens to topple continuing imperialist dominance. Most contemporary Marxist writing has not been focused on global income polarisation and imperialist exploitation of the poor countries. For this reason, it has been unable to explain how exactly the same countries continuously reproduce their dominance. However, the actual conditions of the neoliberal world economy have made explicit how this happens through the labour process itself. In doing so it has also shown how Marx’s labour theory of value can be concretely applied to the conditions of monopoly capital today. "China and other Third World societies cannot "catch-up" with the rich countries. The contemporary world system is permanently dominated by a small group of rich countries who maintain a vice like grip over the key parts of the labour process - over the most technologically sophisticated and complex labour. Globalisation of production since the 1980s means much more of the world's work is now carried out in the poor countries, yet it is the rich, imperialist countries - through their domination of the labour process - that monopolise most of the benefits. Income levels in the First World remain five and ten times higher than Third World countries. The huge gulf between rich and poor worlds is getting bigger not smaller. Under capitalist imperialism, it is permanent. China has moved from being one of the poorest societies to a level now similar with other relatively developed Third World societies - like Mexico and Brazil. The dominant idea that it somehow threatens to 'catch-up' economically, or over-take, the rich countries paves the way for imperialist military and economic aggression against China. King's meticulous study punctures the rising-China myth. His empirical and theoretical analysis shows that, as long as the world economy continues to be run for private profit, it can no longer produce new imperialist powers. Rather it will continue to reproduce the monopoly of the same rich countries generation after generation. The giant social divide between rich and poor countries cannot be overcome." -- Back cover China and other Third World societies cannot 'catch up' with the rich countries. The contemporary world system is permanently dominated by a small group of rich countries who maintain a vice-like grip over the key parts of the labour process - over the most technologically sophisticated and complex labour. Globalisation of production since the 1980s means much more of the world's work is now carried out in the poor countries, yet it is the rich, imperialist countries - through their domination of the labour process - that monopolise most of the benefits. Income levels in the First World remain five and ten times higher than Third World countries. The huge gulf between rich and poor worlds is getting bigger not smaller. Under capitalist imperialism, it is permanent.0China has moved from being one of the poorest societies to a level now similar with other relatively developed Third World societies - like Mexico and Brazil. The dominant idea that it somehow threatens to 'catch up' economically, or overtake the rich countries paves the way for imperialist military and economic aggression against China. King's meticulous study punctures the rising-China myth. His empirical and theoretical analysis shows that, as long as the world economy continues to be run for private profit, it can no longer produce new imperialist powers. Rather it will continue to reproduce the monopoly of the same rich countries generation after generation. The giant social divide between rich and poor countries cannot be overcome. -- China and other Third World societies cannot 'catch up' with the rich countries. The contemporary world system is permanently dominated by a small group of rich countries who maintain a vice-like grip over the key parts of the labour process – over the most technologically sophisticated and complex labour. Globalisation of production since the 1980s means much more of the world’s work is now carried out in the poor countries, yet it is the rich, imperialist countries – through their domination of the labour process – that monopolise most of the benefits. Income levels in the First World remain five and ten times higher than Third World countries. The huge gulf between rich and poor worlds is getting bigger not smaller. Under capitalist imperialism, it is permanent. China has moved from being one of the poorest societies to a level now similar with other relatively developed Third World societies – like Mexico and Brazil. The dominant idea that it somehow threatens to ‘catch up’ economically, or overtake the rich countries paves the way for imperialist military and economic aggression against China. King’s meticulous study punctures the rising-China myth. His empirical and theoretical analysis shows that, as long as the world economy continues to be run for private profit, it can no longer produce new imperialist powers. Rather it will continue to reproduce the monopoly of the same rich countries generation after generation. The giant social divide between rich and poor countries cannot be overcome. Front matter 1 Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 List of Figures 8 List of Tables 9 Part I: Two worlds 26 Income polarisation in the neoliberal period 28 Part II: Contemporary Marxist analysis 54 Decline of Marxist analysis of imperialism 56 Contemporary Marxist response to world polarisation 76 The idea of China as a rising threat 90 Part III: Lenin’s theory of imperialism and its contemporary application 98 What Lenin’s book does not say 100 Is imperialism the ‘highest stage of capitalism’? 111 Lenin’s monopoly capitalist competition 129 Monopoly and Marx’s labour theory of value 151 Part IV: Monopoly and non-monopoly capital: the economic core of imperialism 160 Neoliberal polarisation of capital 162 Polarised specialisation of nations 174 Non-monopoly Third World capital 181 Neoliberal globalisation in historical context 200 The industrialisation of everything 208 Growing state dominance 217 Stranglehold: the reproduction of highest labour power 223 Part V: Super-exploitation of China and why catch-up is not possible 232 China: Third World capitalism par excellence 234 The new Imperialist cold war against China 250 Trade war and China’s latest attempts at upgrading 259 Conclusion 273 Bibliography 278 Index 297 China and other Third World societies cannot 'catch up'. Much of the world's work has moved to the poor countries, yet - through dominating critical aspects of labour process - a few rich, imperialist countries monopolise the benefits. China and the Third World will remain poor and the vast global social divide is - under the present system - permanent. -- .