Globalization
CMN 2168
Neo-liberalism
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‘Liberal’ has different meanings.
Socially progressive, open-minded;
Political doctrine that aims at limiting the
State’s powers regarding individual
freedom;
Economic doctrine of free enterprise
according to which the State must not
interfere in the market and competition
(free trade).
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Neo-liberalism relies on the ideas of
Adam Smith (who was one of the
intellectuals who developed the idea
of free trade and capitalism).
Privatisations
Liberalisation of trade and finance
Supremacy of markets
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All activities and services need to be
rationalized.
Rationalization: the re-organization
or re-structuring of a company in
order to improve its functioning. It
corresponds to the ‘mathematization’
of work and aims at increasing
efficiency and flexibility.
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Neo-liberalism is also known as the
Washington consensus, and is
defined by the US government (and
usually back by the British one).
The actors in the neo-liberal order
are usually huge corporations.
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As neo-liberalism relies on free
trade, it aims at removing what it
considers obstacles to its own
development:
State protectionism
Public services
Trade unions and workers’ rights.
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Neo-liberalism also represents a specific
type of management and decision-making
where productivity, efficiency and
immediate profit are the main criteria.
it is the financial logic that governs
decision making: it is the permanent
search for new means to increase profit
and share value that now acts as the main
managerial drive in large groups and
conglomerates.
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Performance and competitivity are
central to neo-liberalism.
These are present in other spheres of
human activities, such as the cultural
and intellectual spheres.
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In other words, neo-liberalism uses
concepts usually identifies with trade
to everything else.
Neo-liberalism leads to an important
cultural change (if not a change of
civilization).
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Neo-liberalism is partly characterised
by a high concentration of power and
money within the hands of a small
minority, which represents more than
95% of international financial
transactions.
(General Electrics, CNN etc.)
Neo-liberalism and history
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‘Globalization can be understood as a
set of technologies, institutions and
networks operating within, and at
the same time transforming,
contemporary social, cultural,
political and economic spheres of
activity’ (21).
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‘It is [also] the evaluation and
interpretation – the naming – of
those technologies, institutions and
networks as socially, culturally,
economically and historically
identifiable phenomena that in a
sense bring globalization into being,
or make it real to most people’ (21).
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Neo-liberalism follows the logic of
orientalism: ‘it categorizes the world in
terms of the politics of difference’ (23).
Unlike orientalism (which divided the
world in the Occident and the Orient),
neo-liberalism divides the world several
ways (e.g. wealthy countries Vs. poor
countries).
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Neo-liberalism partly relies on trade
regulations defined by and originating
from wealthy countries.
However, there is a difference between the
theory of free trade / neo-liberalism and
its practices.
See example of Moroccan tomato growers
p.23-4.
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‘Free / competitive trade works to
increase power differentials while
supposedly bringing about universal
development’ (24).
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Neo-liberalism’s ’central logic is that
individuals, ideas and the
movements of the market are
inextricably bound together’ (25). It
aims at creating a global free
market.
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‘What we see in studying the history
of neoliberalism is the use of reason
and a utopian discourse to justify the
setting free of the economic field
from social, national and
humanitarian obligations’ (27-8).
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Three differents ways of using
history to discuss neo-liberal
versions of globalization:
Marxism
Cultural theory
Globalist perspectives
Marxism
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Marxism is ‘a way of understanding
the world that focuses on economic
relations and class conflict; includes
as an objective the attainment of a
Communist system of economic
organization, whereby the means of
production are held in public
ownership’ (218)
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Marxist criticisms of globalization
focus on the economic sphere.
According to Immanuel Wallerstein,
‘the defining characteristic of all
social systems is the division of
labour in a sphere of economic
exchange’ (28).
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Division of labour aims at improving
efficiency of production through the
specialization of cooperative labour
in precise tasks and roles.
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1.
2.
Societies can be organized in two ways:
Mini-systems where divisions of labour
and economic exchange occur only
within discrete groups (now virtually
non-existent);
World systems that are capitalist,
international and distributive, with
‘tentacles of trade and exchange crisscrossing the globe’ (29).
This system is capitalist by nature.
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1.
World systems are stable for the
following reasons:
The military strength of
economically dominant states;
2. ‘the world-system is structured in terms
of three main strata, or categories – core,
semi-periphery, and periphery’ (30).
3. ‘Nations and categories are categorized
as such on the basis of their relative
position within the world economy, and on
the basis of their specific internal and
economic characteristics’ (30).
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Here, the exploitation of the lower
stratum by the upper stratum is
central.
A ‘general belief in the legitimacy of
the system, and a commitment to it’
is essential to ensure the system’s
stability. (30
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Criticisms of world-systems theory: it
does not ‘provide a satisfactory
account of globalization, because it
effectively subsumes all social,
cultural and political spheres and
activities under, and explains them in
terms of, the sphere of economic
relations’ (31).
Empire
…on Thursday!