Encircling the commons: Neotribal capitalism in New Zealand since 2000

Abstract

This paper uses a neotribal capitalism approach to theorize the corporate Maori tribes’ economic and political strategies in New Zealand. I trace the current convergence between neoliberalism and the corporate tribe to the alliances and networks established in the inclusive bicultural stage of the 1970s. These alliances were later institutionalized in the exclusive bicultural stage through brokerage processes which, in the brokerage function itself, developed a political relationship between the corporate tribe and the government and established the brokers as self-interest class agents. The consequence of brokerage politics has been the consolidation of a system for the transfer of economic resources from public to tribal ownership and for the devolution of state services into tribal control. This has implications for New Zealand’s liberal democracy.