Western Neo-Marxist Transnational Capitalist Class Theory Research

Globalization is an important structural motive force of social development.Class is a basic category of society,so it is not possible to understand society without the method of class analysis.Driven by Globalization,the traditional class structure has changed,and the class relations and class conflicts have transferred from the national level to the international level.The transnational capitalist class is being formed,and it gradually occupies the global dominant position,and the transnational working class is gradually being formed accompany with the transnational capitalist class.The formation of the transnational class is the core of globalization,which includes the rise of the transnational capitalist class.Therefore,the kind of class analysis limited in the scope of nation-state becomes narrow and inadequate,which requires that we must transcend the national scope and study the formation and development of global class relations in the whole world,we must realize the spatial turn of Marxist class theory,from the stage of nation-state to the transnational stage.In short,the concept of "transnational class" or"global class" is an important perspective on analyzing the problem of the contemporary capitalism.Some scholars of Western New Marxism,such as British scholar Leslie Sklair and American scholar William Robinson,put forward and constructed their transnational capitalist class theory,and further enrich and develop Western New Marxist class theory,which represents the new stage in the development of Western New Marxist class theory.Western New Marxist transnational capitalist class theory has its practical basis and ideological origin.From the viewpoint of intellectual history,the formation and development of the transnational capitalist class theory is on the basis of theoretical pedigrees and academic origins,which include Marx's thought on the world history,the theory of dependent accumulation,the theory of the world system,the theory of Imperialism and the theory of global capitalism.The transnational capitalist class theory is the latest theoretical achievement of Western New Marxist class theory.The most representative figures of studying the theory of transnational capitalist class are British Marxist scholars Leslie Sklair and American Marxist scholar William Robinson.Their discourse on the transnational capitalist class is closely connected with their theory of global system.The transnational capitalist class is an important perspective on their analyzing the theory of the global system.Sklair's discourse on the transnational capitalist class is closely connected with his theory of global system.In his view,the global system was defined appropriately in the following three aspects:economy,politics and cultural ideology.Correspondingly,the transnational corporations,the transnational capitalist class and consumerist culture and ideology were the three pillars of global capitalism:in the global economy,the transnational corporations were the dominant institutional power and the driving force of globalization;at the political level,the transnational capitalist class emerged,whose power came from the transnational corporations;consumerist culture and ideology embodied a set of beliefs and behavior way,which was the basic value to maintain the transnational capitalist class system stable.Robinson's theory of the transnational class formation contains three dimensions:the transnational production,the transnational capitalist class and the transnational nation.Robinson thought that the transnational production created the material foundation for the rise of transnational capitalist class,and the transnational capitalist class sought the world hegemony through the establishment and control of the transnational institutions.Sklair and Robinson's theory of global system are not the same,but their knowledge are consistent in some aspects including the transnational capitalist class'formation background,historical conditions,basic connotation,basic structure,class goals and practice mechanism.In their view,capitalism globalization was the background of the transnational capitalist class' formation;the globalization of production and the establishment of multinational countries were the historical conditions of transnational capitalist class' formation;the transnational capitalist class had become transnational ruling class in some fields;the transnational capitalist class was comprised of the managers of transnational corporations,the bureaucrats and politicians being globalized,and the professional and consumerism elites being globalized;the transnational capitalist class' class object in order was to achieve the capitalist globalization and seek the world hegemony;the transnational capitalist class tried solving their own problems of human social polarization and the crisis of ecological sustainable development.The transnational capitalist class is a component of the world bourgeoisie,so it is different from the national capitalist class.But we think that although the transnational capitalist class grabs labor class' surplus value in the global scope,they are still a branch of bourgeois,so they could not be completely divorced from the capitalist countries to which they belong.In terms of global social development,without the promotion of the capitalism globalization,there is no contradiction or crisis of global capitalism,no struggle or game between global proletariat and global bourgeois,no revival of the world socialist movement,and there also is no interactive effect between regional and international human liberation process Therefore,we should see the essence of the problem of the transnational class,enhance the norm consciousness of globalization operation;at the same time we also.should see that it provides a historical opportunity and social conditions for the transnational working class union and creating a space of hope.Global capitalism is faced with many crises and contradictions,and the formation of transnational capital and transnational capitalist class intensify the conflict between capitalism and nature,between capitalism and socialism as well as between the global bourgeoisie and proletariat.Though the capitalism globalization is the dominant way of globalization in the current era,however,because they could not solve their own problems of human social polarization and the crisis of ecological sustainable development,socialism globalization should become an inevitable choice for the globalization's historical development.Overall,the difference between Sklair and Robinson's theory of the transnational capitalist class are the followings:their understanding of the concept of "globalization"is different,and their understanding of the maturity of the transnational capitalist class is also different.By comparison,Robinson's theory is more radical and extreme.To sum up,Western New Marxist transnational class theory has the features of development,realism and criticism.Only does this theory not explain the reasons and mechanism of global social division and the economic crisis,but in essence it also is critique and protest against the capitalist globalization and transnational capitalist class,and it is latest development of Western New Marxist class theory.Of course,Western Marxist transnational class theory also has its own limitation.To be concrete,their interpretation of the concept of "transnation" was uncertainty,which seemed "super imperialism" to some extent;the study of transnational working class was not thorough enough and it was very weak,compared with the study of transnational capitalist class;they criticized capitalist world system inequality and put forward new ideas on the historic capitalism,however,they covered Marx's theory of "Class Struggle",lacking of scientific analysis and exposition about reforming capitalist class forces and the way to go.