It is as dubious for Marx's critics to claim that Marxism and socialism are dead as it is for Marxists to claim that Marxism and socialism are historically inevitable. Three developments in world capitalism, however, considerably enhance Marxism's standing as a theory of contemporary affairs: capitalism's world ascendancy, as personified in the world market; the waning ideological dominance of neoliberalism; and the retrenchment of one of capitalism's oldest and most effective answers to socialism, the welfare state. When world capitalism and neoliberalism advance and when the shield of the welfare state recedes, capitalism and its contradictions become more transparent. In the past, greater transparency was necessary for greater resistance, which is one reason why Marxism and socialism have an annoying tendency (for Marx's critics) to defy efforts to keep them down.