Assignment

1. Discuss the main pillars of the Marxist political economy. What is the relevance of
Marxism to the social transformation of African Countries
2. Outline the Fundamental arguments of the Keynesian economics. How had the
Keynesianism influenced both economic and political parties in Africa?

Discuss the main pillars of the Marxist political economy. What is the relevance of
Marxism to the social transformation of African Countries?
Dimmelmeier, Pürckhauer & Shah (2016) identifies the Marxist political economy as comprising
an integrative analysis of the economy, society and politics. In addition, the authors identify the
interdependence that evolves historically. The dynamics of labour and capital lead to class
struggle.
The main pillars of the Marxist political economy are economic democracy and political
democracy, these must move in tandem. Marxist Political economy results in analysis of
socioeconomic interactions and conflicts thereof.
The Marxist political economy seeks to settle class struggle. It analyses class struggle through
historical materialism and dialectic materialism. By advocating for a classless society, the
Marxist Political economy seeks to protect labourers and push for equality.

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The Marxist political economy admonishes private property. It recommends collective
ownership or state ownership. This will solve the issue of exploitation as the labourers are
isolated and marginalised.
The Marxist Political economy advocates for fair remuneration, to avoid industrialists from
exploiting the reserve labour force. Legislation regarding minimum wages and working hours
attempts to protect labourers from exploitation.
The Marxist political economy advocated for progressive taxation. In addition, it posits
inheritance should be taxed. This will stem accumulation as there will be future resources used
for exploitation.
Through humanism, the Marxist Political economy seeks to protect the vulnerable and the
environment. There are achieved through state intervention by way of legislation.
The Relevance of Marxism to the social transformation of African counties
The colonial period witnessed a period of forceful eviction of the indigenous society form their
land. This isolation created a class of discontented Africans who challenged the settlers. The
struggle for land and authority led to the fight for independence in Africa.
The post-colonial period witnessed the rise of a group of African elites that comprised of
individual who had schooled abroad and were at the forefront of reaping from the struggle for
independence. Some African leaders adopted the Marxist ideologies. However, the ideologies
were often modified to suite their self-interests. For instance, the adoption of single party states
in Angola and Zaire (DRC).

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The post-colonial period also witnessed a surge in military coup d’état. These were
manifestations of class struggles. Social transformations for instance in Nigeria were witnessed
as a result of Marxism and the opposition to the new breed of African elitists.
The recent Arab Spring in North Africa is attributable to Marxism, to a limited extent. Achcar
(2014) observes that the popular uprising in North Africa were more political than full social
revolution in some countries. From an economic point of view, he identifies rampant
unemployment, poverty and inequality due to monarchs as catalysts to the labor relations and
class conflicts.
However, despite the appeal of Marxism in Africa, the existence of Marxism in Africa is
infinitesimal, Cowell (1983), mainly due to the demise of USSR, upset of socialists like
Nkrumah in Ghana and a general failure of the socialist experiment in Africa like Mozambique.
In addition, variants of Marxism in Africa like Ujamaa, Harambee and scientific socialism lead
to a lack of clear cut Marxism.
Outline the Fundamental arguments of the Keynesian economics. How had the
Keynesianism influenced both economic and political parties in Africa?
Jahan et al (2014) indicate that the central idea to Keynesian economic is that the government
intervention can stabilize the economy. Keynesian economics provided solutions to the Great
depression of 1930’s, at a time when current economic theory failed to provide such solutions.
Classical economics advocated for free markets that automatically brought back the economy to
full employment.
Akerlof (2005) observes that early Keynesian economists developed major components of their
model from consumption function, investment function, and price and wage equations from intuition. Keynesianism argues that aggregate demand can be stimulated by both public and
private decisions. The labor market maybe inefficient due to rigidities for instance minimum
wages thus the economy cannot elf regulate back to full employment. In the short run, increase in
government spending would spur increase in real output and employment rather that increase in prices.