Ideological Options Research Articles

Sob o signo neoliberal: as relações internacionais da América Latina

As relações internacionais da América Latina são vistas sob o ângulo da transição da diplomacia do desenvolvimento para a diplomacia neoliberal. Os estudos de relações internacionais, particularmente no Brasil e na Argentina, fundamentam a interpretação do autor sobre benefícios e malogros do paradigma neoliberal, visto como uma opção ideológica. A noção de Estado logístico é sugerida como alternativa estratégica ao Estado normal.

From Fascism to Libertarian Communism: Georges Valois against the Third Republic.

Georges Valois is the enigma who stands at the center of French fascism. Writer, publisher, economic and political organizer, Valois went from adolescent anarchism to fascism and finally to libertarian socialism. His career has mystified scholars, as it did his contemporaries. From Fascism to Libertarian Communism is the first study of Valois to take his entire life and work as its focus, explaining how certain basic assumptions and patterns of thought took form in strikingly different ideological options. Douglas's work, based on a thorough examination of sources from police archives to personal papers and interviews, provides a convincing explanation of this quixotic figure--a man who founded French fascism only to turn to the radical left and eventually die as a resister in Bergen-Belsen. At a time when radical socialism is in decline and neofascist movements are gaining renewed support--in France and elsewhere--this original interpretation of Georges Valois's life and thought could not be more timely.

La crise du pouvoir en U.R.S.S. (1988-juillet 1991)

Ministere de l'interieur, les OMON, ont organise des milices et des groupes d'autodefense qui sont autant d'armees republicaines en germe. ; La necessite de redefinir l'Union a fini par s'imposer et la premiere version du nouveau traite de l'Union a ete adoptee par referendum le 17 mars 1991. Une version un peu modifiee en a ete publiee le 19 juin mais ni l'une, ni l'autre ne delimitent tres precisement les competences respectives et les competences communes du Centre et des republiques constitutives de l'Union (et encore moins le sort qui sera reserve aux republiques secessionnistes). En revanche, on peut etre certain que le traite sera la source d'innombrables controverses et conflits et notamment sur le point particulierement explosif du budget, de la perception des impots et de la repartition des ressources. ; Dans la derniere partie, l'auteur s'aventure a faire quelques reflexions sur l'avenir. Il replace la perestroika dans la continuite historique de l'empire russe, rappelant que les revendications (libertes individuelles et democratie, auto-determination des peuples et decolonisation) etaient deja celles des acteurs de la revolution democratique russe de fevrier-mars 1917, « confisquee » par le coup d'Etat bolchevik. A present que l'empire s'est ecroule, victime de ses contradictions et de ses faiblesses, par quoi sera-t-il remplace ? La therapie du traite de l'Union parait mal adaptee et plusieurs issues sont possibles : un engagement resolu sur la voie de la democratie et de la decolonisation, le retour a un regime autoritaire mais instaurant l'economie de marche, le choix de la passivite et l'attente, fort risquee, d'une solution « qui s'imposera d'elle-meme » ou le retour a une dictature pure et dure, s'accompagnant d'un bain de sang. Si Mikhail Gorbatchev ne fait pas une nouvelle fois preuve de courage en decolonisant l'empire, serait-ce lentement et par etapes, d'autres s'en chargeront. Et dans ce cas, le pire est a craindre.

The Technological Mystique and Third World Options

Western socialists have been inspired during the past 30 years by the emergence of third world liberation movements which offered new possibilities beyond the stale European-originated reality of the "socialist bloc." At the same time scientific and technological evolution has continued with fanfare and at a rapid pace. Countries trying to exercise new ideological options for development were led to evaluate this science which emanated from the old oppressors yet seemed essential to progress.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Religion and the rise of capitalism

Max Weber's Problemattk still retains its power: why did only Christian Europe amongst the world civilisations autonomously create an economic dynamism, broadly capitalist in character? This essay gives an answer to this question, but it is one, for the most part, not in the spirit of the great German sociologist. There is, of course, a major academic industry devoted to the interpretation of Weber's work, but it still remains safe to say that Weber's own explanation for the fortuitous rise of the West had to do with ideological options concerning rational economic behaviour which gained particular salience in the fifteenth century despite having been present in embryo for a much longer period.

Six Interpretations of the Brazilian Social Formation

Intellectual output and the development of the Brazilian social formation are two inherently linked phenomena. Intellectuals try to analyze (and orient) the society, which at the same time conditions them. This conditioning reflects, on the one hand, the imperative of the changing reality and, on the other, class commitments and ideological options. The objective of this article is to analyze the main interpretations concerning the development of the Brazilian social formation. Therefore, instead of examining the liquidation of the agrarian-mercantile society, the populist period and its crisis, the authoritarian technobureaucraticcapitalist alliance and its collapse, and the perspectives that are opening up for the present Brazilian society, I will attempt to analyze the intellectual interpretations linked to these facts and their transformations. Any type of classification or theory concerning Brazilian society is necessarily arbitrary. While acknowledging this I nevertheless believe it possible to attempt a classification. Six or seven different interpretations appear in succession and enter into conflict in the intellectual scenario of the last fifty years. There is (1) the agrarian destiny interpretation that entered into conflict in the forties and fifties with the (2) nationalbourgeois interpretation. This conflict was overcome by a series of new facts that took place in the fifties and exhausted themselves with the Revolution of 1964. At this point there arose (3) the modernizingauthoritarian interpretation belonging to the new system of domination, while at the same time the intellectuals of the left were divided among three not always clearly distinguished interpretations: (4) the functionalcapitalist; (5) the imperialist superexploitation; and (6) that of the new dependency. Finally, starting in the mid-seventies when the 1964 regime began to enter into crisis, a new interpretation of the project for the hegemony of the industrial bourgeoisie began to take shape.

Le parlement européen : Comparaison des résultats de juin 1979 et portrait de l'Assemblée élue

The results of the first European elections reflect the general distribution of the European electorate slightly center-right oriented, even if the abstentionism of almost 40 % caused some distorsions as in the case of United Kingdom. After the comparison of the results, state by state, it appears globally that the socialists ( 113) and liberals (40) regressed, the gaullists and their allies (22) suffered a serious defeat, white the christian democrats ( 107) and the communists (44) progressed and some minor parties (leftists and regionalists) entered the European Parliament.The second part contains a portrait of the new European Parliament which is younger than its predecessor, has more women including its president and has many high personnalities. As in the past, the political groupsplay a central and dynamic role. The question is to know if they will be capable of maintaining their cohesion. The examined cases give no evidence of the existence of the center-right majority in front of the left opposition. In fact, there were changing coalitions and voting constellations according to different problems, ideological options or concrete choices. The recent vote rejecting the proposed budget expresses a will of the European Parliament to impose its style and its democratic control on the European Community.

Les Eglises européennes et la Paix Réflexions sociologiques sur leur engagement et leur pensée

In 1972, the European Conference of Churches decided to launch a survey on their action in favor of peace. François Houtart's article consists of a sociological reflection on the documents published by these churches (protestant, orthodox, anglican). The first part treats the relationships between the Churches and their respective societies and it establishes a typology: established churches, churches of the liberal capitalist regimes and churches of the socialist regimes. In the first two connections existing between the social, economic and political systems and the churches considerably reduce their autonomy. In the socialist countries, the churches can only have a role of administration of private religion, ex pressing themselves within the limits determined by the ideo logy of the State. Their historical operation in feudal and capitalist societies makes an active role difficult in an egali tarian society. The polarization within the Churches, provoked by the stands taken in areas concerning peace, brings to light the fact that they are affected by the social appurtenances of their members. This generally remains hidden when only the so-called purely religious questions are approached. Thus the difficulty arises of accepting prophetic minorities within them as well as of administrating conflicts linked with ideological options, options which are themselves fruits of social ap purtenances. In capitalist societies the dominating classes generally have a preponderant voice within ecclesiastical organizations. One can notice a lack of socio-political analyses in the churches. This permits the author to study the notions of macro and micro-dimension in depth. The latter, which is that of the immediately perceptible, forms the general level of the apprehension of religious agents who have difficulty in placing themselves at a more global and structural level. The theological reflection concerning these areas often seems rather contradictory as it passes from a more or less explicit socio-political analysis to an ignorant production of its own social and ideological consequences. In any case, what is new is the development, at the heart of the churches, of an awareness that theological thought is ideologically situated and that their action is socially conditionned.

Nationalism, National Unity, and the Economic Theory of Information

Nationalism, National Unity, and the Economic Theory of Information. The study attempts to explain the under-representation of French C'anadians at the higher administrative and technical levels within Canadian firms by applying the theory of information to the Canadian labour market. Companies need information conceming the market for prospective employees, just as individuals need information on salaries and working conditions. There are important economies of scale in the acquisition of infolmation, economies which encourage the establishment of institutionalized of information. The role of these is, particularly important in the selection of candidates for the higher ranges of the organizational structure where tlhe need for information is most pressing. As the process of industrialization has come in large measure from outside through the importation of capital, technology, and knowhow, the information have been established outside the French Canadian community. As a result, the Canadian and the Quebec labour markets are split into two sub-groups, French and English-speaking, distinct in the degree of information they possess on prospective employers, and in the amount of information these employers possess about members of each group. From this analysis can be drawn three corollaries which are empirically verifiable: first, the supply and demand of the disadvantaged factor will be reduced; second, there will be a greater uncertainty and dispersion in the qualifications offered by French Canadians and required by hiring firms; and finally, the salaries offered to French Canadians, and expected by them, will be more widely distributed. On a broader plane, the approach permits one to interpret the two ideological options traditionally adhered to by French Canadians: a panCanadianism which calls for as great an integration as possible of French Canadians into the <'information networks of the 'other society; and on the other hand, a nationalism which calls for the establishment of distinct French Canadian enterprises and institutions totally integrated into the French Canadian milieu.

De leidinggevende ambtenaren : bureaucraten of ideologen ?

The Belgian senior civil servants do have a political ideology which, with respect to coherence and constraint, is not inferior to that of the members of Parliament and, therefore, far superior to that of the common man. The first characteristic of this ideology is its centrism: senior civil servants tend to shun the extremes, especially the socio-economic (leftist and rightist) extremes. A second characteristic is its bias toward the center-right. But the latter may be an effect of recruitment and promotion practices under the recent Belgian governing coalitions, rather than of the bureaucratic experience under all kinds of governments.That the bureaucratie experience leaves its mark on the ideological constructs of the bureaucratie elite can also be inferred from other data. They are inclined to centralism because the recent federalisation process imposes a heavy burden on their routines. They do not have a distinctive ideological profile with respect to religious and philosophical issues because these rarely appear on the agenda of most of the civil servants.The consequences of these characteristic ideological options are not to be underestimated. There is a clear affinity between a leftist ideology and a less technocratic and less alienated political attitude. At the same time leftist civil servantsare more inclined to commit themselves to active partisan politics. Their colleagues of the right tend more to up hold the traditional distance between bureaucracy and partisan politics. The optimal prescription for administrative reform would, perhaps, consist in furthering a more political, less technocratic style of administrative policy making, and in maintaining the traditional wariness of partisan politics.