Imperialism and the ‘national bourgeoisie’

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Abstract
This article takes up some of the major issues surrounding the development/underdevelopment debate, as taking place in Kenya and Nigeria in particular. While underdevelopment theory as exemplified in Amin and Frank has been found wanting, the ‘return to Marx’ via analyses of the internationalisation of capital and class formation in the periphery has not answered the questions raised by underdevelopment theory because it has not an adequate analysis of imperialism, one which integrates the study of class formation in the periphery with its effects on the system as a whole and vice versa.An analysis of the Nigerian case shows how this might be done. Most importantly it shows how imperialism protects local bourgeoisies from the demands of the oppressed classes, while local bourgeoisies through control of the state provide monopoly conditions for imperialist expansion.

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