In Marxist theory, imperialism consists of capitalist states superexploiting labour in agrarian regions in order to increase both the imperialist nation's productivity and their market.
He pointed out that growing nationalism in the more industrially advanced colonies would necessitate a continuation of the arms race after the war and that should this occur, economic stagnation would worsen.
[6] In Kautsky's view, the only one way in which capitalists would be able to maintain the basic system while avoiding this stagnation would be for the wealthiest nations to form a cartel in the same manner as which banks had co-operated, agreeing to limit their competition and renounce their arms race in order to maintain their export markets and their systems of superexploitation.
He wrote that Kautsky's theory supposed "the rule of finance capital lessens the unevenness and contradictions inherent in the world economy, whereas in reality it increases them".
[9][10] Martin Thomas of Trotskyist Workers Liberty points out that "since the collapse of the Stalinist bloc in 1989-91, that 'ultra-imperialism' has extended to cover almost the whole globe".
Rather, "it is a very unequal but multifarious system, with political independence for the ex-colonies, rapidly-permuting new international divisions of labour, and many poorer states exporting mostly manufactured goods".
[11] Opponents of the theory of ultra-imperialism argue that whatever similar forms may have existed during the Cold War, since its end inter-capitalist competition has tended to increase[12][13] and that the nature of capitalism makes it impossible for capitalists to make conscious decisions to avoid behaviour if in the short term it proves beneficial.