Dependency and world-systems theory are also related to the Marxist tradition while historical sociology, although not necessarily Marxist, at least shares with that tradition a critical approach to large-scale patterns of social, political, and economic development over time. As one commentator has noted, Marx has not always been well served by his followers (Rockmore, 2018: p. In both cases, however, it was also transformed into a version of authoritarianism, although it was never inevitable that implementing Marxist ideas in practice would necessarily entail an authoritarian political system. This distinguishes the legacy of Marx and Engels from the way in which their thought has been theorized in authoritarian communist regimes, especially in China and the former USSR where it underpinned distinctive revolutionary traditions (see Chan, 2003 Marik, 2008). The strands discussed here are all variants of or draw from ‘Western Marxism’. In this chapter we examine several major strands of Marxist-influenced theory of direct relevance to global politics, including Gramscian theory (after its founding theorist, Antonio Gramsci) and Frankfurt School theory (after its home base in Germany) which constitute distinctive approaches to contemporary Critical Theory (CT). Marxist ideas have had a major influence on critical approaches to virtually all aspects of politics in both domestic and global spheres. The themes of power, ideology, and hegemony, and especially the way in which ruling classes maintain control and promote the legitimacy of capitalism, are central to Marxist thought. It aims to provide a radical critique of capitalist society and, indeed, of earlier modes of social, economic and political organization, primarily through the analysis of class relations. Marxist theory derives from the thought of Karl Marx (1818–83) and his close collaborator, Friedrich Engels (1820–95).
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