ABSTRACT
William W. Murdoch’s analysis indicates that “circular causal pathways” induced by structures of political power and class maintain high birth rates among the poor. The idea that the growth of capitalism simultaneously generates improvements in productivity and increases the relative poverty of the lower classes is as old as Marx. For revolutionary socialists, the political scenario envisaged includes within it coherent solutions to the problems of class and the market. The peculiarity of political action in the periphery is that the ruling class does not usually seek out mediating structures but is directly represented in the state, and in some cases the state-classes are combined features of society. Two quite divergent themes compete in Marxist analysis of African politics: first theme represents the class structure of African societies as shaped by international capitalism; the other theme stresses the systemic autonomy of African states.
