The Debate on the Neo-Marxist Approach to Development

An area where Marxist interpretations and tools of analysis seem gradually to be replacing the Parsonian functionalist paradigm is the sociology of development. In fact, Marxist methodology, in the wider sense of the word, has been so successful in this field of study that few serious students, whether Marxists or not, are very much concerned with the sort of functionalist/neo-evolutionist theories which were fashionable in the fifties and early sixties (for instance the work of Hagen, McLeland, Rostow, Lerner, Smelser, Eisenstadt).1 At present, interesting debates on such problems take place within Marxism as various theorists start taking a critical look at what has been called the neo-Marxist approach to development. Some of these critics pay attention mainly to the methodological shortcomings of neo-Marxist writers, others contest their substantive findings and conclusions. In this chapter I shall try to analyse and assess both types of critique (paying greater attention to the former)2 in the light of developments in Greece — a country whose economic trajectory portrays characteristics pertinent to the above debates.