Ultra-imperialism, or occasionally hyperimperialism and formerly super-imperialism, is a potential, comparatively peaceful phase of

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...

, meaning after or beyond

imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic powe ...

. It was described mainly by

Karl Kautsky Karl Johann Kautsky (; ; 16 October 1854 – 17 October 1938) was a Czech-Austrian philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theorist. Kautsky was one of the most authoritative promulgators of orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels ...

. Post-imperialism is sometimes used as a synonym of ultra-imperialism, although it can have distinct meanings.

Origin of the term

The suggestion of a possible ultra-imperialism is normally attributed to

, the leading theoretician of the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been ...

(SPD) in the era of

Imperial Germany The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

. Kautsky coined the term in 1914, but he had speculated on the issue several times in 1912 already. He postulated that in the field of international relations a "stage pproaches in which the competition among states will be disabled by their cartel relationship". Thus, Kautsky’s ultra-imperialism concept was shaped by the idea of

cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...

s made up by states for the purpose of international policy. However, the basic idea of a possible pacification of imperialism did not really originate from Kautsky. The British left-liberal John Atkinson Hobson had written in 1902 in a similar context about a potential inter-imperialism which could be established by a combination of great powers (combination or combine then being used to designate

s). In 1907,

Karl Liebknecht Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht (; 13 August 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a German socialist and anti-militarist. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) beginning in 1900, he was one of its deputies in the Reichstag fro ...

stated in his brochure ''Militarismus und Antimilitarismus'' that "a trustification of all actual and potential colonies among the colonial powers, so to speak, ��a disabling of the colonial rivalry among the states ould take place in the future as it occurred to some extent for the private competition among capitalist entrepreneurs in the cartels and trusts". On the eve of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, these peace-loving social-democrats and liberals in Europe hoped that the great powers—beginning with the British Empire and the German Reich—would unite into a states' cartel or a combination of states giving the rivals organization and reconciliation.

Karl Kautsky's statements in 1914

In 1914, Kautsky published an article on imperialism which subsequently was translated into English and published in the United States. In these, he argued there could be a way out of direful wars among the imperialist powers, a solution now named ultra-imperialism or

super-imperialism Super-imperialism is a Marxist term with two possible meanings. It refers either to the hegemony of an imperialist great power over its weaker rivals which then are called sub-imperialisms, or to a comprehensive supra-structure above a set of the ...

. Kautsky elucidated this thought in the September 1914 issue of '' Die Neue Zeit''. He described the current phase of capitalism as

. In

Marxist theory Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are works in philosophy that are strongly influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or works written by Marxists. Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew fro ...

, imperialism consists of capitalist states superexploiting labour in agrarian regions in order to increase both the imperialist nation's

productivity Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...

and their market. However, imperialism also required capitalist states to introduce

protectionist Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations. ...

measures and to defend their

empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

s militarily. He believed that this was the ultimate cause of

,
Ultra-imperialism
'. Kautsky noted that before the war while industrial accumulation had continued,

export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is a ...

s had dropped as a result of a tendency of industry to expand out of proportion to

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...

. He pointed out that growing

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

in the more industrially advanced

colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

would necessitate a continuation of the

arms race An arms race occurs when two or more groups compete in military superiority. It consists of a competition between two or more states to have superior armed forces; a competition concerning production of weapons, the growth of a military, and ...

after the war and that should this occur,

economic stagnation Economic stagnation is a prolonged period of slow economic growth (traditionally measured in terms of the GDP growth), usually accompanied by high unemployment. Under some definitions, "slow" means significantly slower than potential growth as e ...

would worsen. In Kautsky's view, the only one way in which capitalists would be able to maintain the basic system while avoiding this stagnation would be for the wealthiest nations to form a

in the same manner as which

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

s had co-operated, agreeing to limit their competition and renounce their arms race in order to maintain their export markets and their systems of superexploitation. In doing so, he postulated that

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

and

militarism Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the mili ...

were not essential features of capitalism and that a peaceful capitalism was possible.

Vladimir Lenin's criticism

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

disagreed with Kautsky's approach. In an introduction to

Nikolai Bukharin Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин) ( – 15 March 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, Marxist philosopher and economist and prolific author on revolutionary theory. ...

's ''Imperialism and World Economy'' written in 1916, he conceded that "in the abstract one can think of such a phase. In practice, however, he who denies the sharp tasks of to-day in the name of dreams about soft tasks of the future becomes an opportunist". Lenin developed Bukharin's theories of imperialism and his own arguments formed the core of his work '' Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism''. He wrote that Kautsky's theory supposed "the rule of finance capital lessens the unevenness and contradictions inherent in the world economy, whereas in reality it increases them". He gives examples of disparities in the international economy and discusses how they would develop even under a system of ultra-imperialism. He asks under the prevailing system "what means other than war could there be under capitalism to overcome the disparity between the development of productive forces and the accumulation of capital on the one side, and the division of colonies and spheres of influence for finance capital on the other?"

Recent positions on the idea of ultraimperialism

Some Marxists have pointed out similarities between the co-operation between the capitalist states during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

and ultra-imperialism.
Lenin, Kautsky and "ultra-imperialism"
', World Socialist Web Site. Martin Thomas of

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

Workers Liberty The Alliance for Workers' Liberty (AWL), also known as Workers' Liberty, is a Trotskyist group in Britain and Australia, which has been identified with the theorist Sean Matgamna throughout its history. It publishes the newspaper ''Solidarity''. ...

points out that "since the collapse of the Stalinist bloc in 1989-91, that 'ultra-imperialism' has extended to cover almost the whole globe". Thomas goes on to say that it is not simply “a sharply polarised world of industrial states on one side, agrarian states on the other, with the industrial states joining together to keep the agrarian states un-industrial by force”. Rather, “it is a very unequal but multifarious system, with political independence for the ex-colonies, rapidly-permuting new international divisions of labour, and many poorer states exporting mostly manufactured goods". Opponents of the theory of ultra-imperialism argue that whatever similar forms may have existed during the Cold War, since its end inter-capitalist competition has tended to increaseBashir Abu-Manneh,
The Illusions of Empire
',

Monthly Review The ''Monthly Review'', established in 1949, is an independent socialist magazine published monthly in New York City. The publication is the longest continuously published socialist magazine in the United States. History Establishment Following ...

. and that the nature of capitalism makes it impossible for capitalists to make conscious decisions to avoid behaviour if in the short term it proves beneficial.

Related theories

State cartel theory, a new concept in the field of

international relations theory International relations theory is the study of international relations (IR) from a theoretical perspective. It seeks to explain causal and constitutive effects in international politics. Ole Holsti describes international relations theories a ...

, uses the basic conception of Kautsky's ultra-imperialism, but it is not a Marxist theory.

References

{{reflist

Literature

* Karl Kautsky, "Der Imperialismus," ''Die Neue Zeit,'' 11 September 1914; 32 (1914), Vol. 2, p. 908–922. * Karl Kautsky, "Imperialism and the War," trans. William E. Bohn, ''International Socialist Review'' hicago,IL: 190015 (1914); also available at Marxist’s Internet Archive, http://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1914/09/war.htm * Karl Kautsky, "Ultra-imperialism," trans. unknown, ''New Left Review'' I/59 (1970), 41-46; also available at Marxist’s Internet Archive, http://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1914/09/ultra-imp.htm * V.I. Lenin,
Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism
', Russia 1917. * Holm A. Leonhardt: ''Bibliographie zur Ultraimperialismus-Theorie. Bibliography on Ultraimperialism Theory''. In: Homepage des Instituts für Geschichte der Universität Hildesheim http://www.uni-hildesheim.de/media/geschichte/Bibliographie Ultraimperialismustheorie.pdf. * Holm A. Leonhardt: ''Zur Geschichte der Ultraimperialismus-Theorie 1902–1930. Die Ideengeschichte einer frühen Theorie der politischen Globalisierung''. In: Homepage des Instituts für Geschichte der Universität Hildesheim http://www.uni-hildesheim.de/media/geschichte/Geschichte Ultraimperialismustheorie.pdf (available since January 20, 2008). * Martin Thomas: ''Introduction to Kautsky's "Ultra-imperialism: a debate"''. in: Workers Liberty 2002, http://www.workersliberty.org/node/1037 "Ultra-imperialism. * John A. Willoughby: ''The Lenin-Kautsky Unity-Rivaly Debate'', in: ''Review of Radical Political Economics''. Vol. 11, 1979, Issue 4, p. 91–101. Imperialism studies Marxist terminology