In recent years, the concepts of imperialism, global capitalism, and capitalist empire have become increasingly relevant to critical globalization studies. Within the context of this discourse, this article explores whether or not contemporary society can be characterized as a new form of the Marxist notion of imperialism. In an attempt to answer this question, I employ Vladimir Lenin’s analysis of imperialism as it relates to contemporary capitalism. I test Lenin’s theories with a macroeconomic statistical analysis of existing data.
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