Welfare Genocide: Rentierism, Neoliberalism, and the Corporatization of the Public Sector in Jordan

Abstract

Brenner et al. (2010, pp. 329–30) conceptualize neoliberalism “as one among several tendencies of regulatory change that have been unleashed across the global capitalist system since the 1970s: it prioritizes market-based, market-oriented, or market-disciplinary responses to regulatory problems; it strives to intensify commodification in all realms of social life; and it often mobilizes speculative financial instruments to open up new arenas for capitalist profit making.” I find this conceptualization very relevant and specially in its mobilization of speculative financial instruments in opening up new arenas for capitalist profit making. Previous research by the author (Daher 2008, 2013) elaborated on the details of neoliberal urban restructuring and new forms of spatial ordering in Amman. This paper critically investigates official discourses and practices of development through three phases of geopolitical and socioeconomic transformations that have taken place in Jordan. Phase one commences with the period right after World War II at the end of colonization. This phase is known by a, relatively, high level of welfare through “state” subsidizing fragile sectors of development including agriculture, infrastructure (mainly electricity and water), and education. Yet, during this phase Jordan demonstrated a special case of a nonoil rentier economy where financial support to the government was derived from nonproductive sources including oil rent, international aid, and remittances from mainly Jordanians working in the Arabian Gulf (Knowles 2005, p. 9). Part of the welfare mechanism was obtained through public sector employment and subsidies on basic goods that benefited the general population.