Abstract
An area where Marxist interpretations and tools of analysis seem gradually to be replacing the Parsonian functionalist paradigm is the sociology of development. In fact, Marxist methodology, in the wider sense of the word, has been so successful in this field of study that few serious students, whether Marxists or not, are very much concerned with the sort of functionalist/neo-evolutionist theories which were fashionable in the fifties and early sixties (for instance the work of Hagen, McLeland, Rostow, Lerner, Smelser, Eisenstadt).1 At present, interesting debates on such problems take place within Marxism as various theorists start taking a critical look at what has been called the neo-Marxist approach to development. Some of these critics pay attention mainly to the methodological shortcomings of neo-Marxist writers, others contest their substantive findings and conclusions. In this chapter I shall try to analyse and assess both types of critique (paying greater attention to the former)2 in the light of developments in Greece — a country whose economic trajectory portrays characteristics pertinent to the above debates.
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Notes
E. E. Hagen, On The theory of social change, Dorsey Press, Homewood, III., 1962;
D. C. McLeland, The achieving society, D. Van Nostrand, Princeton, N. J., 1961;
W. W Rostow, The stages of economic growth, Cambridge University Press 1962;
D. Lerner, The passing of traditional societies, Glencoe, III., 1958;
Eisenstadt, Modernisation: protest and change, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1965;
N. Smelser, Social change in the Industrial Revolution, Routledge, London 1959;
T. Parsons, Societies: Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs 1966;
R. Bellah, Tokugawa Religion, Free Press, Chicago, 1957.
For introductory works in this area of study, cf. L. Rhodes (ed.), Imperialism and underdevelopment: A reader, Monthly Review, New York 1970;
and Anouar Abdel-Malek (ed.), Sociologie de l’impérialisme, Anthropos, Paris 1971;
R. J. Owen and R. B. Sutcliffe (eds), Studies in the theory of imperialism, Longman, London 1972.
For a theory which explicitly ascribes more weight to external factors of underdevelopment, cf. T. Szentes, The political economy of underdevelopment, Budapest 1971;
see also the influential work of A. Emmanuel, Unequal exchange, New Left Books, London 1972.
For an excellent work which focuses more on the relationship between underdevelopment and internal class relationships, see G. Arrighi, The political economy of Rhodesia, Mouton, The Hague 1967.
On this point see D. Psilos, Capital market in Greece, Centre of Economic Research, Athens 1964, pp. 23–43.
For a detailed analysis of this growth see Vernicos, op. cit., vol. I; and E. Kartakis, Le Développement industriel de la Grèce, Lausanne 1970.
Cf. for instance B. Warren, ‘Imperialism and capitalist industrialisation’, New Left Review, no. 81.
For Marx’s position on this issue, cf. S. Avineri, K. Marx on colonialism and modernisation, Doubleday, New York 1968.
Cited in G. Photopoulos, ‘The Dependence of the Greek economy on foreign capital’ (in Greek), Economicos Tahidromos, no. 1107, p. 12.
For a systematic analysis of such mechanisms linking Greek agriculture to the capitalist-industrial sector, cf. C. Vergopoulos, The agrarian problem in Greece: The issue of the social incorporation of agriculture (in Greek), Athens 1975.
Cf. L. S. Stavrianos, The Balkans since 1453 New York 1958, pp. 413 ff.; cf. also Berend and Ranki, op. cit., pp. 105 ff.
Cf. E. J. Tsouderos, Le Rélèvement économique de la Grèce Berger-Levrault, Paris 1920.
For an account of Greece’s financial position in the nineteenth century, cf. A. Levandis, The Greek foreign debt and the Great Powers 1821–1898 New York 1944.
See for instance R. Stavenhagen, ‘Seven erroneous theses about Latin America’, in L. H. Horowitz et al., Latin American radicalism, Vintage Books, New York 1969, pp. 102–17.
Cf. Amin, op. cit.; see also his more recent work Le Développement inégal, Minuit, Paris 1973.
E. Laclau, ‘Feudalism and capitalism in Latin America’, New Left Review no. 67, May–June 1971. For a convenient summary of criticisms of Frank’s theories, cf. D. Booth, ‘André Gunder Frank: an introduction and appreciation’, in Beyond the sociology of development op. cit., pp. 50–86; and also N. Long, ‘Structural dependency, modes of production and economic brokerage in rural Peru’, in Beyond the sociology of development op. cit., pp. 253–82.
L. Lublinskaya, French absolutism: the crucial hase: 1620–1629, Cambridge University Press, 1968.
C. D. Scott, ‘Peasants, proleterianisation and the articulation of modes of production’, in Jrnl of Peasant Studies, Apr 1976, p. 323.
N. Poulantzas, La crise des dictatures: Portugal, Grèce, Espagne, Maspèro Paris 1975, p. 15; and C. Vergopoulos, op. cit., introduction.
Cf. L. Althusser and E. Balibar, op. cit., pp. 178 ff; cf. also Sereni, op. cit.; C. Luporini, ‘Reality and historicity: economy and dialectics in Marxism’, Economy and Society vol. IV, no. 2, pp. 206–31;M. Godelier, Rationalité et irrationalité en économie Maspèro, Paris 1966, part II.
K. Marx, Pre-capitalist economic formations, Lawrence (and) Wishart, London 1964; for a collection of texts by Marx, Engels and Lenin on the subject, cf. Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Marxistes, Sur les sociétés précapitalistes, Editions Sociales, Paris 1973.
Cf. N. Mouzelis and M. Attalides, ‘Greece’, in M. Scotford Archer and S. Giner (eds), Contemporary Europe Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1973, part I.
Cf. P. Streeten, ‘The use and abuse of models of development planning’, in K. Martin and J. Knapp (eds), The teaching of development economics, Frank Cass, London 1966.
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© 1978 Nicos P. Mouzelis
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Mouzelis, N.P. (1978). The Debate on the Neo-Marxist Approach to Development. In: Modern Greece. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-05006-2_2
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