Beyond Neoliberalism: A World to Win

310 Pages·2012·1.328 MB·English

by  James Petras, Henry Veltmeyer

Beyond neoliBeralism
Globalization, Crises, and Change
Series Editor
Professor Berch Berberoglu
University of Nevada, Reno, USA
Careful sociological analysis of the dynamics and contradictions of neoliberal
globalization is sorely needed in order to assess the social consequences of this
process on affected populations and develop appropriate responses to overcome
the current global economic, political, and social crises.
Volumes in the series will focus on three interrelated processes that are the product
of the latest phase of global capitalist development at the end of the twentieth and
the beginning of the twenty-first century:
1. The nature and dynamics of neoliberal globalization;
2. the worldwide contradictions and crises of neoliberal globalization;
3. the responses to neoliberal globalization with focus on social change and
transformation including popular social movements based on grassroots
people’s organizations, mass protests, rebellions, and revolution.
Taken together, these provide a comprehensive analysis of the nature,
contradictions, and transformation of globalization through its inner logic that
ultimately leads to the changes wrought by this process on a global scale. The
significance of this series is that it provides the opportunity to examine this
multifaceted phenomenon that has had (and continues to have) a major impact on
society and societal development in our time.
Also in the series
Beyond the Global Capitalist Crisis
The World Economy in Transition
edited by Berch Berberoglu
978-1-4094-1239-7
Beyond neoliberalism
a World to Win
James PeTras
SUNY, Binghamton, USA
and Saint Mary’s University, Canada
Henry VelTmeyer
Saint Mary’s University, Canada
and Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Mexico
© James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer 2011
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer have asserted their right under the Copyright, designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work.
Published by
ashgate Publishing limited ashgate Publishing Company
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Union road 101 Cherry street
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Petras, James F., 1937-
Beyond neoliberalism : a world to win. -- (Globalization,
crises, and change)
1. Capitalism. 2. Capitalism--social aspects.
3. Imperialism. 4. Socialism. 5. Social conflict.
i. Title ii. series iii. Veltmeyer, Henry.
330.1'22-dc22
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Petras, James F., 1937-
Beyond neoliberalism : a world to win / by James Petras and Henry
Veltmeyer.
p. cm. -- (Globalization, crises, and change)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-1-4094-2847-3 (hardback) -- isBn 978-1-4094-2848-0
(ebook) 1. Capitalism--21st century. 2. economic policy. 3.
Globalization--economic aspects. i. Veltmeyer, Henry. ii. Title.
HB501.P41588 2011
330.12'2--dc23
2011031608
isBn 9781409428473 (hbk)
isBn 9781409428480 (ebk)
IV
Contents
List of Tables vii
Introduction 1
Part I: CaPItalIsm In the twenty-FIrst Century
1 The Contradictions of Capitalism 11
2 The Inequality Predicament 19
3 A New Development Paradigm: Saving Capitalism from Itself 55
4 The Global Crisis and Latin America 91
5 Uneven Development and the Class Struggle 107
Part II: ImPerIalIsm In the twenty-FIrst Century
6 Rethinking US Imperialism 121
7 Globalization and Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century 135
8 Imperialism in Latin America: Then and Now 155
9 Uprisings and Regime Change in the Arab World 175
Part III: twenty-FIrst Century soCIalIsm
10 Socialism of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries 201
11 Cuba: Reforming the Revolution 225
12 Barbarism or Socialism? 263
vi Beyond Neoliberalism
Conclusion: Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century 281
Bibliography 287
Index 297
List of Tables
2.1 Widening income gap among regions, North/South (GDP per capita)
(1985 PPP US$) 23
2.2 Income distribution, percentage share; Gini coefficient, 1989–2009 33
3.1 Incidence of poverty/indigence, percentage of population, 1989–2009 57
11.1 Conditions of human development (2009) 229
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Introduction
Winds of change are sweeping across the world. In the Arab world of the Middle
East and North Africa these winds were released by pent-up resentments against
a very authoritarian form of capitalism, and have taken the form of spontaneous
uprisings and resistance against authoritarian class rule and the demand for regime
change and democracy. In China, and to a lesser extent in India and elsewhere in
South East Asia, the forces of change are generated by a process of rapid capitalist
development and the associated forces of productive and social transformation—
forces that are converting masses of the rural poor, tied to the land, into a
proletariat of wageworkers, and transforming an agrarian society dominated by
precapitalist production relations into a class-divided society based on a capitalist
mode of production. The forces of change operating in this part of the world are
‘progressive’ in the sense that they are contributing to an enormous expansion of
the forces of production—a rapid rate of economic growth. They are retrogressive
in that like capitalism elsewhere and earlier—in the twentieth century in much
of the world—this development is highly uneven and is based on exploitation of
cheap labor, and the production of a surplus population and the immiseration of
the rural proletariat, leading to the growth of class struggles in the countryside and
in the burgeoning cities—struggles that will take different forms depending on
culture and circumstances.
In Latin America, four cycles of neoliberalism policies, implemented in
conditions of a Washington-based consensus on the need to liberate the forces
of economic freedom from the regulatory constraints of the welfare-development
state, are drawing to a close. Three decades of neoliberal policies have produced
conditions that have bred and given rise to forces of resistance against both
neoliberalism and US imperialism. In the vortex of these forces and a multi-
dimensional crisis—a financial crisis that is threatening to morph into a broader
economic crisis—the region is on the threshold of change in the struggle to shape
the future. At stake is a world to win. At issue is whether to advance capitalism in
some form, and to protect it via the exercise of imperial power? Or whether to turn
towards socialism.
The Inter-American Development Bank in July 2010 declared that this would
be ‘Latin America’s decade’. A few months later, The Economist endorsed this
idea, which has since been repeated by countless apologists and experts. There
is nothing like a little economic growth to get pundits’ juices flowing. And Latin
America is growing, by 6 percent in 2010 and an estimated 4.75 percent in 2011,
according to the IMF. Compared with the region’s mostly sluggish performance
over the last three decades, this looks like takeoff velocity, giving rise to a bullish