Most revolutionary socialists have read Lenin's contribution to this. Fewer have read Bukharin's and Luxemburg's. Bukharin's work is a more detailed work that has many overlaps with Lenin's book but develops the points further. It also has an interesting history. Because it was lost to the censor and only recovered after the revolution it is published with an additional chapter that reflects the post-revolutionary hope of the era. Bukharin, as with Lenin, elegantly paints a picture of a transformed world where everything is in flux:
In various ways there thus takes place the trasnfusion of capital from one "national" sphere into the other; there grows the intertwining of "national capitals"; there proceeds the "internationalisation" of capitalism. Capital flows into foreign factories and mines, plantations and railroads, steamship lines and banks; it grows in volume; it sends part of the surplus value "home" where it may begin an independent movement; it accumulates the other part; it wides over and over again the spehere of its application; it creates an ever thickening network of international interdependence.
He continues:
We thus see that the growth of the world economic process having as its basis the growth of productive forces, not only calls forth an intensification of production relations among various countries, not only widens and deepens general capitalist interrelations, but also calls to life new economic formations ,new economiv forms unknown to the past epochs in the history of capitalist development.
These new formations, syndicates and cartels and other such capitalist constructs, signal the emergence of a new order. Bukharin argues that the old world economy could be compared to the structure of a national economy until the late 19th century, but the new economy is marked by the "considerable narrowing [of] the hitherto unhampered 'free play of economic forces'." National economies are now geared towards the international economy, but the global economy is much more than a sum of national economies it is a everchanging, interacting and evolving system. Even if competition was abolished, he argues, in a national economy, there would still be crises because of the international economy.
This, Bukharin argues, is also true of war. War "in capitalist society" is an example of competition, extended to the world economy. "War is an immanent law of a society producing goods under the pressure of the blind laws of a spontaneously developing world market". But, he argues, not one of a sociaet that consciously regulates the process of production and distribution - i.e. socialism.
For Bukharin it is the newness of 20th century capitalism that is remarkable. He describes the changes as "radical" and it is driven by finance capital which has reached "colossal proportions". Banking capital "appears in the role of an organiser of industry". But it is unplanned and disorganised. The growth of the productive forces "clashes with the antagonistic form of distribution and with the disproportion between various parts of capitalist production". It is a profoundly unstable world, without planning or equilibnrium, "hence terrific crises and precipitous changes".
For those reading Imperialism and World Economy in the era of Trump it is worth noting Bukharin's comments on tariffs. These are "partial sorties". In the long run he says, "conflict is solved by the interrelation of... force of arms".
Some of the book takes up political questions. Bukharin points out that pacifists cannot solve war - because of its centrality to the logic of capital. Less convincing his Bukharin's insistance, along with Lenin, that there is an aristocracy of labour in the rich countries that is bought off by the surplus from imperialism. Not least because there is no satisfactory explanation of how this process happens, and the capitalists have never knowingly handed over cash to their workers - however important they are - without serious class struggle.
Also Bukharin fails to foresee what might happen when capitalism has further developed in colonial countries. How could new imperialisms, or sub imperialisms, evolve and challenge the powerful nations. This is a process I would argue that plays a central role in modern political economy. The emergence of China as a new imperialist power is one example. But so are the regional imperialist interests of countries like Israel and Iran. Their interplay with global politics is shaping the modern world.
Overall though, this is a must read for a deeper grasp of the history and development of world capitalism and of Marxist thought on imperialism. Tragically a book written for the early 20th century that is still massively relevant to today.
Related Reviews
Lenin - Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism
Callinicos - Imperialism and Global Political Economy
