Lecture 3 - this is for students - Critical theory ‘Critical theory’ (often called ‘Frankfurt School

Critical theory

‘Critical theory’ (often called ‘Frankfurt School critical theory’, to distinguish it from the wider

category of critical theories or perspectives) has developed into one of the most influential

currents of Marxist-inspired international theory A major influence on critical theory has been

the ideas of Antonio Gramsci. Gramsci (1970) argued that the capitalist class system is

upheld not simply by unequal economic and political power, but by what he termed the

‘hegemony’ of bourgeois ideas and theories. Hegemony means leadership or domination and,

in the sense of ideological hegemony, it refers to the capacity of bourgeois ideas to displace

rival views and become, in effect, the ‘common sense’ of the age. Gramsci’s ideas have

influenced modern thinking about the nature of world or global hegemony. Instead of viewing

hegemony in conventional terms, as the domination of one military power over another, modern

neo-Gramscians have emphasized the extent to which hegemony operates through a mixture

of coer- cion and consent, highlighting the interplay between economic, political, military and

ideological forces, as well as interaction between states and international organizations.

Robert Cox (see p. 120) thus analyzed the hegemonic power of the

cated to the USA in the 1930s, and was re-established in Frankfurt in the early 1950s (the

Institute was dissolved in 1969). The defining theme of critical theory is the attempt to extend

the notion of critique to all social practices by linking substantive social research to philosophy.

Leading ‘first generation’ Frankfurt thinkers included Theodor Adorno (1903–69), Max

Horkheimer (1895–1973) and Herbert Marcuse (1989–1979); the leading exponent of the

‘second genera- tion’ of the Frankfurt School was Jürgen Habermas (born 1929). While early

Frankfurt thinkers were primarily concerned with the analysis of discrete soci- eties, later

theorists, such as Cox (1981, 1987) and Andrew Linklater (1990, 1998), have applied critical

theory to the study of international politics, in at least three ways. In the first place, critical

theory underlines the linkage between knowledge and politics, emphasizing the extent to

which theories and under- standings are embedded in a framework of values and interests.

This implies that, as all theorizing is normative, those who seek to understand the world

should adopt greater theoretical reflexivity. Second, critical theorists have adopted an explicit

commitment to emancipatory politics: they are concerned to uncover structures of oppression

and injustice in global politics in order to advance the cause of individual or collective

freedom. Third, critical theorists have questioned the conventional association within

international theory between political community and the state, in so doing opening up the

possibility of a more inclusive, and maybe even cosmopolitan, notion of political identity.

Lecture 3 - this is for students