CEVAP:

Like classic Marxism, neo-Marxism has also been subject to many criticisms. In this respect, it is said that the neo-Marxists that blame the Western countries for the underdevelopment of less developed countries display a rather reductionist approach, oversimplifying the situation. Sometimes, this approach may not even be true. Pelter T. Bauer states, for example, that there had been almost no economic growth in Africa before the Europeans arrived there. Indeed, trade and economic activities in Africa, especially in West Africa, vividly increased in conjunction with the commercial activities of the Europeans. Bauer further argues that the states that were not subject to Western colonialism, such as Liberia and Ethiopia, are currently more backward than those of their neighbors colonized. Moreover, the relationship between Western countries and colonial people is not just one-sidedly exploitative. On the contrary, through Western domination, colonial people began to experience literacy, education, science, even hygiene and sanitary methods (Bauer, 1981). On the other hand, the political impact of the West on colonial lands was greater than the economic impact. The notions, like freedom, liberty, independence, self-determination, and so on that were utilized by colonial people in their struggle against Western powers were actually borrowed from Western political vocabulary. Some other non-Marxist scholars similarly argue that there is not necessarily a positive relationship between underdevelopment and colonial past. If a country is poor and underdeveloped, that may be because of its internal dynamics, such as unsophisticated population, internal conflicts, lack of culture of democracy, frustration of basic human needs, and so on. Besides, there are many recentlydeveloped countries that have a colonial past but now enjoy a high level of prosperity, such as South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. Neo-Marxists, like classic Marxists, also assume that the socialist system cannot be exploitative. Yet they tend to ignore the Soviet Union’s record in Eastern Europe right after the Second World War. Roughly in four years, almost all Eastern European countries became under the political control of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union’s approach to these countries was far away from being fair. In fact, it was rather exploitative in many ways. As a heritage of the recent past, underdevelopment can still be observed in most parts of Eastern Europe. During the Soviet era, many people, including political elites, in less developed countries were attracted to the Soviet model of economic planning. Yet the model has lost its attraction since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Historic experiences have clearly showed, at least by far that not counting/disregarding the serious distribution problem, market dynamics are superior to economic planning in providing wealth and prosperity to the general.