Lenin's Theory Of Imperialism Versus Lipton's Theory Of Urban Bias

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Both Lenin’s theory of Imperialism and Lipton’s theory of Urban Bias derive from Marxist’s view on capitalism, which demonstrates the parasitic relationship between two parties. This parasitic relationship separates society into classes, creating ruling and ruled classes, the ruling classes which receive most of the benefits and profits due to their monopolization of the factors of production, causing under development in the ruled party or class. Lenin’s theory of Imperialism which was first published in 1916 stated that Imperialism was the highest stage of capitalism. Imperialism is the monopolization of one country on the factors of production of another country or colony, placing most of the wealth in the hands of the more powerful and dominating country, creating underdevelopment in the other. Lenin noted five stages that lead to Imperialism, the first of which is The Concentration of Production and the Creation of Monopolies. This results from the Marxist belief that capital has a becomes more concentrated into fewer hands and “faced with a falling rate of profit, it was always the largest enterprises with the biggest reserves, the highest organic composition of capital and the most efficient division of labour which were best equipped to ride out the deepening and recurrent crises capitalism produced.”[1] These enterprises within specific countries eventually engulfed other businesses reducing competition whether putting them out of business or buying them up, broadening there businesses on a national level. The second stage of Imperialism is The Merger of Bank Capital with Industrial Capital. Lenin saw this as a result of the change in the role of the bank in society. Initially the bank was a intermediary between individual and firms, however this changed in the beginning of the twentieth century, when
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