Le marxisme face à l'histoire globale

Abstract

The cyclical standpoint involved in World-System theories and which climaxes in the question who will be the next hegemon would appear to neutralize the Marxist perspective directed towards an ultimate goal which is the end of capitalism and class domination. Global history offers a profound renewal of our historical knowledge, questioning some of the classical claims of Marxism. In line with the argument in Ltat-monde (2011), it is however argued here that one cannot be satisfied with a purely systemic conception of the present time. Modernity is the effect not only of (world) system but also of (class) structure, classes being understood here in terms of a state institution within a nation-state. As a result of the technological developments which it propels, capitalist modernity possesses a structural tendency leading from nation-state to a World (class) State that is involved in the World System. In this sense, the present time can be defined as that of ultimodernity. In this ecological terminus, the human species forms a (class-structured) political community. The tasks of Marxism thus return and are restated, in what is a more complex and more uncertain mode.