Event: ZEF Public Lecture: Non-capitalist development in Africa and Asia – Lessons from the 20th century

Lecture at the University of Bonn

Novem­ber 7, 2024 | 13:30 h — 14:30 h

 

The lecture will be held in hybrid mode (zoom and in-person at ZEF).

 

You can join us in-person at ZEF, ground floor, Confe­rence Room, Genscher­al­lee 3, 53113 Bonn,
or online via Zoom.

Abstract

The theory of “non-capi­ta­list deve­lo­p­ment” was a corner­stone of the commu­nist states’ foreign policy during the latter half of the 20th century. This theory main­tai­ned that former colo­nies in Africa and Asia – where feudal or even pre-feudal rela­ti­ons prevai­led – would not have to undergo the same path of capi­ta­list deve­lo­p­ment follo­wed by North America and Europe during the 18th and 19th centu­ries. Instead, the socia­list world system would be able to assist young states in the “Third World” in circum­ven­ting capi­ta­lism and proceed through a period of non-capi­ta­list deve­lo­p­ment towards an indus­tria­li­zed socia­list economy. Mongo­lia and the Central Asian Soviet Repu­blics were seen as successful test cases for this strategy.

 

This lecture will examine the deve­lo­p­ment of the theory in socia­list scho­lar­ship during the 20th century and high­light some concrete expe­ri­en­ces in count­ries such as Mali, Congo-Braz­z­aville, Afgha­ni­stan, and Syria. When explo­ring both the succes­ses and limi­ta­ti­ons of this stra­tegy, we will also discuss how the collapse of the “Eastern bloc” in 1989 and the subse­quent rise of China have influen­ced the pros­pects of inde­pen­dent deve­lo­p­ment in the former colo­nies today.

 

Matthew Read is a coor­di­na­tor and rese­ar­cher at the Zetkin Forum for Social Rese­arch, where he over­sees a project on the history of the socia­list states in Eastern Europe and their rela­ti­ons with the Global South during the second half of the 20th century. His most recent work has focu­sed on deve­lo­p­ment rese­arch in the USSR and GDR and the histo­ries of socia­list-orien­ted states in Mali (1960–1968) and Congo-Braz­z­aville (1963–1989).