Free Market Ideology Research Articles

The Emergence of Filipino Technocrats as Cold War “Pawns”

ABSTRACT This article discusses the rise of Filipino technocrats in the context of the Cold War. Because of the fear of a communist takeover of newly independent yet vulnerable agrarian societies, the USA emphasised economic modernisation, also conceived as a means to defeat communism. Promoting free market liberalism, the Bretton Woods institutions played a critical role in supporting US-sponsored modernisation. In promoting a modernisation agenda, the US administrations needed technocrats, steeped in US ways of management and free market ideology. For the Philippines, this involved local training and education and graduate study in US colleges. This provided the state with reliable managers and provided the technocrats with the expertise to serve local and multinational corporations. The political value of the technocrats was demonstrated when they led key economic agencies during the pre-martial law Marcos administration. When Marcos declared martial law in 1972, he retained the technocrats who then facilitated intensified development assistance by the Bretton Woods institutions as part of the US’s Cold War strategy. This scheme, however, failed to stem the growth of the communist insurgency due to the failure of economic policies to address poverty and underdevelopment, uncontrolled crony capitalism and the regime’s repression. An anti-dictatorship movement burgeoned and ultimately led to the ouster of Marcos and the technocrats.

Innovative and Technological Development of a Megapolis Within the Public and Private Partnership

Current demographic trends show that large cities, both in Russia and in leading foreign countries attract the most active and creative population groups. Thus, it is possible to state that megacities have become drivers of the overall economic development of countries. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make a significant contribution to the development of cities, including in the sphere of high technology and innovation. However, SMEs need support from the State to implement their projects for the benefit of society. The paper states that the activities of small and mediumsized enterprises should be harmonized, taking into consideration the participation of big business and government agencies, and be aligned with the free-market ideology. For the balanced and successful management of Russian economy, it is necessary to highlight trends in their development and major problems faced by modern urban agglomerations. The study employs the methods of analysis, synthesis and logical research based on the creative and informational approach. The authors analyze important aspects of public-private partnership, challenges being experienced by SMEs, modern measures for their support, and illustrate them by the case of Moscow. The results of the implemented programs and projects show that the development of small and medium-sized enterprises through the public-private partnership is a promising area for Russia, and Moscow is the most demonstrative example in this sphere.

It’s no longer the economy, stupid! Issue yield at the 2017 German federal election

This article demonstrates that the issue-yield concept is able to predict the electoral strategies of mainstream and challenger parties at the 2017 German federal election. While the electorate of mainstream parties favour valence issues, the Greens and the AfD can gain more by concentrating on socio-cultural positional issues. Relying on a unique survey covering 17 positional issues and 10 valence issues as well as an analysis of Twitter accounts, the article shows that contemporary Germany is characterised by a centrifugal competition on the socio-cultural dimension. At the same time, an asymmetric ideological confrontation persists on the socio-economic dimension, because the Left and the SPD still refer to their traditional welfare issues while the bourgeois parties no longer counter this with a contrasting free-market ideology. Thus, the economy is currently not the decisive issue in German politics. Migration, integration, and other socio-cultural issues are rather driving electoral competition.

Brazilian businessmen movements: Right-wing populism and the (dis)connection between policy and politics

We advocate for the relevance of taking Brazilian past experience and theorization of populism into account to understand present-day challenges. We depart from Weffort’s conceptualization of populism to discuss the role of businesspeople movements in supporting and taking control of the political agenda through think tanks. According to Weffort, populism is built over precarious alliances that tend to favor policy or politics in different moments. During times of divergence among political elites, a populist leader emerges as a mediator in orchestrating an unstable hegemony among asymmetric classes. At the same time, the classes included in the populist alliance give legitimacy to the populist leader; they hinder his capacity of imposing decisions. However, treason of the weakest within the alliance is certain. We suggest that the political role played by the think tank IPES, in 1960s Brazil, in reframing middle-class demands is akin to contemporary populist events in Brazil—represented by the election of Jair Bolsonaro—and in the Anglo-Saxon world. Trumpism and Brexit are examples of a still-powerful free-market ideology project wrapped up under a populist discourse (re)framed with the support of businessmen and think tanks. A corporate takeover of government and the imposition of a free-market agenda are certain, as it is the treason of the weakest in the populist coalition. CMS academics should engage with the demands that give birth to populist movements as a way to dispute the neoliberal hegemony and anti-democratic populist solutions.

‘The climate has always been changing’: Sarah Palin, climate change denialism, and American conservatism

ABSTRACT Celebrity politician Sarah Palin diffused climate denialism, while advocating a version of social and political conservatism. This article scrutinises her rhetoric and argues that she crafted and performed a brand or ethos that resonated with common-sense conservatism, while at the same time reinforcing and popularising this doctrine. The article discerns the epistemological and ontological premises of Palin’s ideological position and probes how she used her image as an anti-intellectual, frontier individual to speak common sense and to advocate free-market ideology and climate denialism. The article, then, contributes to our understanding of how celebrity politicians craft and use ethos to promote anti-environmental agendas and ideological positions. It also highlights the embeddedness of climate denialism in the political conviction that Palin espoused.

Predicting climate change risk perception and willingness to act

We extended a recent model of climate change risk perception (van der Linden, 2015) to predict the risk perception of Australians and their willingness to engage in mitigation behaviours (N = 921). Affect, mitigation response inefficacy, and descriptive norms were the most important predictors of risk perception, highlighting the influence of affective, cognitive, and socio-cultural factors. Affect and mitigation response inefficacy were also important predictors of behavioural willingness, but socio-cultural influences (free-market ideology, prescriptive norms, and biospheric values) played a relatively larger role in explaining the variance of behavioural willingness. Structural equation modelling provided further evidence that risk perception and behavioural willingness are separable constructs, as some factors in the model had direct effects on willingness independent of risk perception. We discuss the need for future research to develop a comprehensive model of behavioural willingness, and the need for public communication to combat mitigation response inefficacy.

Action for Cities: the Thatcher government and inner-city policy

AbstractThis article surveys the Thatcher administration's approach to inner-city policy. It uses recently opened archives to reignite the debate over how far these years marked a radical break with past practices towards market-oriented approaches. The first part explains why inner cities became such a central issue for the Conservative party, running through all areas of domestic policy and taking up a vast amount of legislative time. The second part details some of the transatlantic neo-liberal ideas that blamed inner-city ills on government intervention, which were increasingly influential amongst senior Conservatives. The third section shows how little free market ideology actually succeeded in directing government policy, which more often than not saw an expansion of the role of the state. Antagonism with local authorities is revealed to have been a much more important and influential factor. These themes are expanded in the fourth section, which charts the Action for Cities policy drive of Thatcher's final term.

The Politics of Economic LiberalizationWueest, BrunoCham, Palgrave Macmillan (2018), 169 p., ISBN 978‐3‐319‐62321‐4

The Politics of Economic LiberalizationWueest, BrunoCham, Palgrave Macmillan (2018), 169 p., ISBN 978‐3‐319‐62321‐4

The politics of think tanks in social media: FAES, YouTube and free-market ideology

Communication and the media stand out among the means think tanks employ to shape public opinion, influence political cultures and spread ideologies. More specifically, both traditional and new media stand out as resources for the advocacy performed by right-leaning think tanks. While the use of traditional media has been well studied, little research has focused on think tanks’ online message content. This article focuses on the social media communication of one of the main think tanks in Spain: FAES. The YouTube videos of this research institution are content analysed in light of (1) free-market ideology and (2) the specific philosophical tenets of two American think tanks: the conservative Heritage Foundation and the libertarian Cato Institute. Results indicate that free-market ideology is communicated throughout FAES’s videos. However, neither Heritage-type conservatism nor Cato-type libertarianism are conveyed. Our study shows that an economic right-wing discourse is finding a new outlet on social media, and sheds light on how FAES’s use of the web relates to the political context.

Interactive Commodity Loop

The commodity is recognized as an essential element of our world. If our relationship with commodity as the structuring form of capitalist society is an ongoing process of subjective work and the exchange of meanings, then the question of historical ontology becomes inevitable. Historical ontology means that “we constitute ourselves at a place and time, using materials that have a distinctive and historically formed organization” (I. Hacking). This paper is an attempt to interpret commodity through the extension of two concepts developed by Ian Hacking (the looping effect, the making up people), and their connection with the philosophical approach to economy. The looping effects of commodity create a special ambience, special forms of connection and separation, equality and hierarchy, community and singularity, freedom and affirmation. The article gives a short historical account of the emergence of the commodity loop (from the 1850s to 2001), and singles out the importance of the structural determinations of capitalism (the ideology of free market, property, state mechanisms, a specific type of culture, etc.). The “making up people” inside the commodity loop presumes the people who count, take part in the marketising, imagine the market in every situation, interiorize the market-conforming sense of guilt and responsibility, and, paradoxically, will be ready to be self-entrepreneurs, to participate in own making up. It is shown that contemporary doxa becomes evident from the perspective of the commodity loop, although it creates a context of harmony and reduces complexity. As the analysis goes deeper, we are discovering interactive nodes at steadily increasing levels of intensity but also two possible productive points of resistance (inequality, immigration). The commodity loop is an ontological fabric in which all threads are woven together, from political and economic to social and personal relationships. At the end of the article, we try to connect Agamben’s ideal of profanation with Hacking’s looping effect. This leads to the conclusion that commodity’s phantom-like objectivity should be profaned, which means to return it to free human use.

A liberdade em Polanyi

Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation is a powerful criticism of free market ideology and its intrinsic assumptions that is based on an implicit political theory of freedom. The attempt is made here of reconstructing and making explicit Polanyi’s concept of “freedom in a complex society” in light of his commitment to a sui generis form of socialism and his lifelong opposition to arguments as found typically in Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom.

Anomalous Anglophones? Contours of free market ideology, political polarization, and climate change attitudes in English-speaking countries, Western European and post-Communist states

Recent scholarship has thoroughly documented climate change attitudes within the majority of the English-speaking countries of the USA, the UK, Canada, and Australia. In these nations, political identity is widely recognized as a uniquely powerful predictor of climate change attitudes and, at least in the USA, several studies have found that education moderates the effect of political identity. The cross-national dynamics of climate change attitudes and political identity are not well-characterized, particularly in nations with a history of state socialism. In this manuscript, we consider the role of political and free market ideological polarization around climate change within Anglophone, Western European, and post-Communist states. Further, we investigate education as a moderator of political and ideological factors cross-nationally. We suggest that, in comparison to Western European and post-Communist states, the role of political and ideological polarization in Anglophone states is exceptional in shaping climate change attitudes. Using data for 20 countries in the 2010 ISSP Environmental Module, we find that the effect of party affiliation and free market ideology on the perception of climate change’s danger and importance is strongest in Anglophone states, more modest in Western European countries, and limited within post-Communist states. Further, education moderates most intensely in Anglophone states. Our results suggest that there is something exceptional occurring within Anglophone states with regard to political polarization and climate change attitudes.

Secularizing Philanthropy in the Twentieth Century: The Pew Family as Trustees of Divine Endowment

Planning for the Pew family trusts (founders of Sun Oil) dates to at least 1932 when estate work began for the four Pew children. Fear of inheritance “super-taxes” proposed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to finance his New Deal was in the air in the 1930s and drove a number of wealthy families to find novel ways to shield their assets from Roosevelt’s various revenue acts. These trusts were meant only to come into effect after the death of each family member, and it was not until 1948 when the four Pews sat down to invest into existence the Pew Memorial Foundation (their father’s posthumous memorial) that they made headlines in terms of secular philanthropy. The Pews saw Roosevelt’s taxes as not only the first blow in a new type of class warfare, but also as a pointed attack against the free market ideologies that allowed individual choice in the ultimate investment of one’s money. This article follows the Pews’ attempts to navigate their responsibilities to family wealth. By examining the logic and theological contours of the Pews’ insistence upon a separation between public and private, profit and loss, and secular market, political lobbying, and religious interest, we learn not only about conservative Protestant influence on American law, but also about the context for the creation of an independent philanthropic “third sector” tied to the evolving role of organized religion in twentieth-century American society.

The developmental state: can it travel from East Asia to Eastern Europe?

The demise of Leninist regimes was accompanied by the hegemonic rise of the free market ideology with neoliberalism being its most ideal-typical embodiment. Yet, the decades of the neoliberal hegemony on both global and regional sales have not removed the state and its role in promoting development from research and policy agendas. Moreover, neoliberalism has produced a string backlash in forms of nativist and populist reaction. Thus, the article sets out to trace the genealogy of the state within the framework of the late Leninist regimes and post-Leninist period, asking a question about the relevance of the East-Asian developmental state experience to post-Soviet conditions. The article discusses the experience of Japan and South Korea, while exploring theoretical underpinnings of the sociological discourse of the state and its role in the development. Thus, the article comes up with a condensed narrative of the history of the developmental state both as an institutional arrangement and sociological discourse. It discusses and evaluates the contribution to the sociology of the developmental state of such scholars as Alice Amsden, Peter Evans, Bruce Cumings. The article conceptualizes the relations between the developmental state and neoliberalism. It also identifies the causes of the developmental state crisis and evaluates the Easter-European experience with constructing such a state. The article defines the stumbling blocks on the way of building the developmental state in Ukraine. It is argued that given Ukraine’s proximity to the EU as well as pluralistic nature of the Ukrainian society the authoritarian option is not viable for Ukraine. At the same time, Ukraine is unlikely to succeed in building the developmental state, being caught in a struggle with a kleptocratic polity which has been unable so far to produce a long-term developmental polices.

INDUSTRIALISASI VAGINA: POTRET KEBIJAKAN PELACURAN

The issue of prostitution has long existed before, which is believed to have begun since the period of slavery. Even prostitution as a work is often referred to as one of the oldest types of work in the World. Although some Feminist groups before the 1980s convincingly said that prostitution is a sign and a subordinate example of women that will not exist anymore when women get the equation (Jefrey 2009). As Millett puts it, the old form of 'living fossils' of slave relations still exists today (Millet 1975). Even Jeffrey (2009) says that what is most important today is that the current ideology and new economic practice, "Neo-liberalism," in which the tolerance of 'sexual liberty' has been combined with free market ideology to reconstruct prostitution as 'work' law that could be the basis of the national and international sex industry. Therefore, the development of this sector needs to be understood as the commercialization of the subordination of women, and shows how the return of the global sex industry can begin.

Gender Differences in Willingness to Compete: The Role of Culture and Institutions

In the laboratory experiment reported in this paper we explore how evolving institutions and social norms, which we label 'culture', change individuals' preferences and behaviour in mainland China. From 1949 China experienced dramatic changes in its socio-economic institutions. These began with communist central planning and the establishment of new social norms, including the promotion of gender equality in place of the Confucian view of female 'inferiority'. Market-oriented reforms, begun in 1978, helped China achieve unprecedented economic growth and at the same time Marxist ideology was gradually replaced by the acceptance of individualistic free-market ideology. During this period, many old traditions crept back and as a consequence social norms gradually changed again. In our experiment we investigate gender differences in competitive choices across different birth cohorts of individuals who, during their crucial developmental-age, were exposed to one of the two regimes outlined above. In particular we investigate gender differences in competitive choices for different birth cohorts in Beijing using their counterparts in Taipei (subject to the same original Confucian traditions) to control for the general time trend. Our findings confirm: (i) that females in Beijing are significantly more likely to compete than females from Taipei; (ii) that Beijing females from the 1958 birth cohort are more competitive than their male counterparts as well as more competitive than later Beijing birth cohorts; and (iii) that for Taipei there are no statistically significant differences across cohort or gender in willingness to compete. In summary, our findings confirm that exposure to different institutions and social norms during the crucial developmental age changes individuals' behaviour. Our findings also provide further evidence that gender differences in economic preferences are not innately determined.

Focus: Why unions in Australia are looking to tax justice campaigns

As in a Shakespearian play, we are witnessing the demise of an old king whose rule has been based on lies, deceit and misery. Those seeking to bring about changes are rushing to undermine the crumbling foundations of the King’s stronghold. They know they don’t have the power required for direct confrontation, having suffered decades of being besieged. But they do have the skills, experience and strategy to win. Provided they act in time. There are signs the stronghold’s walls are cracking, but the King’s allies are rallying ready to rebuild. In 2016, according to businessinsider.com.au, Joseph Stiglitz stated that neoliberalism was on its last legs, the consensus surrounding it having come to an end1. The events leading to this apparent weakness are well documented; the global financial crises (GFC) exposed the deceit and precariousness of neoliberalism and created the stage upon which the actors entered. The waves of austerity that followed the GFC have been matched by the relentless exposure of growing inequity2. For public sector unions the effects of neoliberalism have been close to devastating. This free market ideology, driven through trade and investment agreements and deregulation, have resulted in the privatisation of services and infrastructure whilst austerity measures have resulted in the loss of job security, positions, wage suppression and the loss of entitlements. Tax settings favourable to corporations were meant to ‘trickle down’ into more jobs and wealth for the community, but they never have. Instead we’re left with an eroded tax base that makes it hard to provide decent public services, and job insecurity and inequality are rising. For decades public sector unions have been speaking out about the effects of neoliberalism, however their arguments often failed to gain traction. With the growing exposure of inequity, and increasing transparency of business practises, however, there is now a growing audience for an alternative to neoliberalism. Indeed, there is a growing audience for an alternative to capitalism3,4. The analogy of neoliberalism as an old king is instructive given the evolution of the fight for gender equality has positively decreased the tolerance for sexism. Reports identify that the impact of privatisation is greatest on women5 and that the majority of public sector workers in Australia are women6. Within these contexts there is a corresponding reawakening of the need for, and the need to protect, publically owned and run services and infrastructure. Some public services and infrastructure in Australia are world renowned, such as the public health system backed by Medicare, our universal health insurance system used to ensure affordable, if not free, access to services. A government approach to pharmaceuticals (the PBS and PAB) ensures a collective affordability of effective and efficient medicines. Primary and secondary school education is technically free. But even in these examples user co-pays and commercialisation, are seeing affordability slipping. Indeed, privatisation and commercialisation in Australia have seen many services and infrastructure go to the private sector or accessed through a commercial basis. Whilst the privatisation front was opened by a Labor government, conservative governments have pursued it with vigour. Privatisation examples include the sale of the Commonwealth Bank, Qantas, Telstra (telecommunications), shipping, and energy generation and distribution. There have been major service-delivery privatisations which have caused huge issues for vulnerable communities, such as the privatisation of the Commonwealth Employment Service and the fracturing of services to job-seekers. Commercialisation has seen free tertiary education convert to AUD$100,000 degrees paid through student loans. Our post-GFC world has seen privatisation back on the agenda. To use a colloquialism; we’ve just about sold off the farm. Between 2016 and 2017 a group of public sector unions in Australia funded a public inquiry into the effects of privatisation. The aim of the inquiry was to look at the impact of privatisation on communities. The report, Taking Back Control7, found that, for our communities, there is decreased access to public services and a decrease in quality when services are obtained. Our communities are struggling to enact effective accountability when services fail whilst at the same time those most vulnerable within our societies are repeatedly, and wrongly, demonised for being the cause of societal woes...

The Tourist Hotel Corporation: It is time the story was told in full

i te kore nga putake e mākukungia e kore te rakau e tupu ('If the roots of the tree are not watered the tree will never grow')
 New Zealand is in the middle of the most dramatic and sustained boom in tourism and hospitality in its history. The hotel sector that underpins our tourism growth stands utterly transformed from its humble beginnings. Yet the history of the Tourist Hotel Corporation (THC) and its role as the ‘roots’ of the modern hotel industry still tends to be told only as a minor part of our wider tourism story. Recent PhD research [1], based on extensive archive sources and interviews with senior practitioners, argues that the time has come for the THC story to be told in full.
 While there have been histories of the tourism and hospitality sector that cover the THC [2–7], they have not included in-depth discussion of the origins, structure and legacies of the organisation. Established in 1955 and sold in 1991, the THC dominated the New Zealand tourist hotel sector for 35 years, running around 10 resort-style properties and setting the standard for service. However, the current dominance of neo-liberal ideology has resulted in the achievements of the Government-owned THC being somewhat dismissed and the role of massive Government investment in the development of our hotel sector often being ‘conveniently’ forgotten. It is common for the THC to be depicted as rather archaic. Burdened with political interference and gross underfunding, the THC is sometimes depicted as a prime example of what happens when the state tries to run a business.
 However, this research argues there is a more heroic telling of the THC story, one that celebrates the THC as the fundamental ‘roots’ of the modern hotel sector. The THC was a key player in transforming post-war New Zealand hospitality, raising the bar for service, food and beverage and accommodation significantly. The THC invested heavily in improving buildings, vehicles, equipment and machinery, developing the skills and careers of its staff, and innovating menus. Staff from the THC were seen as ‘A grade’ and many of today’s most successful General Managers learnt their trade in THC properties. Many THC staff also went on to set up influential restaurants outside of hotels during this period.
 The THC managed significant tourism development even while showing a profit from 1974 till the late 1980s, posting a 2.7 million dollar surplus in 1986. However, a combination of perceived indebtedness, the 1987 recession and free-market Government ideology resulted in the sale of the THC to the Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation in 1991. The story of the THC involves drama, intrigue, politics, high finance, rapid growth and equally rapid collapse. But most importantly, this is the story of the origins of our hotel industry, showing the huge contribution this state funded group made to the modern industry. Surely it is time this story was told in full, on its own terms and in glorious technicolour.
 If you would like to read the PhD thesis this research is based on you can access it here: https://aut.researchgateway.ac.nz/handle/10292/10412
 Corresponding author
 David is Senior Lecturer at the School of Hospitality and Tourism, Auckland University of Technology. He spent 18 years working in the hospitality industry as a hotel manager and restaurateur. His research includes work, employment and labour market issues in hospitality and tourism. David completed his PhD in 2017 – a history of employment relations in the New Zealand hotel sector, 1955–2000.
 David Williamson can be contacted at: david.williamson@aut.ac.nz
 References
 (1) Williamson, D. In Search of Consensus: A History of Employment Relations in the New Zealand Hotel Sector – 1955 to 2000; Ph.D. Thesis, Auckland University of Technology, 2017.
 (2) Brien, A. 100 Years of Hospitality in New Zealand: The People, the Politics, the Passion; Wellington Museums Trust in association with the Hospitality Association of NZ: Wellington, New Zealand, 2003.
 (3) McClure, M. The Wonder Country: Making New Zealand Tourism; Auckland University Press: Auckland, New Zealand, 2004.
 (4) Medlik, S. The Business of Hotels, 4th ed.; Butterworth-Heinemann: Oxford, U.K., 2000.
 (5) Slattery, P. The Economic Ascent of the Hotel Business; Goodfellow Publishers: Oxford, U.K., 2009.
 (6) Watkins, L. Billion Dollar Miracle: The Authentic Story of the Birth and Amazing Growth of the Tourism Industry in New Zealand; Travel Agents Association of New Zealand: Auckland, New Zealand, 1987.
 (7) Yu, L. The International Hospitality Business: Management and Operations; Haworth Press: New York, 1999.

The punishment marketplace: Competing for capitalized power in locally controlled immigration enforcement

Neoliberal economics play a significant role in US social organization, imposing market logics on public services and driving the cultural valorization of free market ideology. The neoliberal ‘project of inequality’ is upheld by an authoritarian system of punishment built around the social control of the underclass—among them unauthorized immigrants. This work lays out the theory of the punishment marketplace: a conceptualization of how US systems of punishment both enable the neoliberal project of inequality, and are themselves subject to market colonization. The theory describes the rescaling of federal authority to local centers of political power. Criminal justice policy activism by local governments is punishment entrepreneurship: an accumulative approach to securing fiscal gain, political hegemony, security, and capitalized power. Local immigration enforcement entrepreneurship targets unauthorized and other deportable immigrants. This punitive immigration control reinforces racially structured social relations by obscuring the diminishing returns neoliberal globalization provides working class whites.

The free market ideology as a ceremonial feature in Latin american

The free market ideology as a ceremonial feature in Latin american