Uneven development

Uneven and combined development (or unequal and combined development) is a Marxist concept to describe the overall dynamics of human history. It was originally used by the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky around the turn of the 20th century, when he was analyzing the developmental possibilities that existed for the economy and civilization in the Russian empire, and the likely future of the Tsarist regime in Russia. It was the basis of his political strategy of permanent revolution, which implied a rejection of the idea that a human society inevitably developed through a uni-linear sequence of necessary "stages". Trotsky's ideas matured under the influence of Georg Vollmar's study of a possibility of socialism in one country, as well as John Hobson, Rudolf Hilferding and Vladimir Lenin's studies of imperialism. Also before Trotsky, Nikolay Chernyshevsky and Vasily Vorontsov proposed a similar idea. The concept is still used today by Trotskyists and other Marxists concerned with world politics.

Trotsky's concept was originally inspired by a series of articles by Alexander Helphand (better known as "Parvus") on "War and Revolution" in the Russian journal Iskra in 1904. At first, Trotsky intended this concept only to describe a characteristic evolutionary pattern in the worldwide expansion of the capitalist mode of production from the 16th century onwards, through the growth of a world economy which connected more and more peoples and territories together through trade, migration and investment. His focus was also initially mainly on the history of the Russian empire, where the most advanced technological and scientific developments co-existed with extremely primitive and superstitious cultures.

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