post-Fordist Accumulation Research Articles

A Critical Reflection on Neoliberalism

: In this interview, we first scrutinise the meaning of classical liberalism and its revision by New liberalism in the twenties as social liberalism to demonstrate the conceptual confusion in using the term ‘neoliberalism' as an economic doctrine. We then discuss the emergence of American neoliberalism as developed by the economic and law departments of the University of Chicago in the seventies notably by the Monetarist school. The anti-inflation program of Milton Friedman and Washington consensus provide a particular version of neoliberalism as economic policy. However, neoliberalism also pertains to a transitional, and non viable post-Fordist accumulation regime that has collapsed by 2007-2008 crisis. We also demonstrate the opposition against neoliberal economic policy not only by left critics but also by many right and center economists, politicians and scholars. Finally, we refute the idea of considering the political economy of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) as neoliberal. Borrowing Vahabi’s theoretical framework, we characterise parallel institutions and foundations as political capitalism with the predominance of predatory para-statal sectors. The limits of reformist and transformationalist discourses are revisited in light of political economy of the IRI, and the need for a social and political revolution is concluded.

Гериатрический капитализм: стагнация и кризис постфордистского режима накопления

Гериатрический капитализм: стагнация и кризис постфордистского режима накопления

SOCIAL POLICY, STATE, AND ‘SOCIETY’

This contribution explores the relations among social policy, the state and ‘society’ in the light of recent changes in capitalist social formations, including the increasing integration of the world market and the increasing significance of ‘world society’ as the ultimate horizon of communication, calculation, and policy deliberations. It builds on my earlier work on welfare state restructuring but updates it in four ways. First, it provides stronger foundations for analyses of welfare regimes in the nature of capitalism, looking beyond a general critique of the capitalist mode of production to consider specific configurations of capitalist social formations and their insertion into the world market. Second, it extends my earlier work beyond the economies of Atlantic Fordism and their crises to include export-oriented economies and developmental states and the differential implications for welfare regimes of knowledge-based economies and finance-dominated regimes as potential bases of post-Fordist accumulation. Third, especially in relation to finance-dominated accumulation, it considers the problematic status of the welfare state and/or social policy in neoliberal regimes that are strongly inserted into a competitive world market. And, fourth, it addresses the status of ‘global social policy’ as a response to the integration of the world market and the emergence of ‘world society’. The contribution ends with some general conclusions about the study of welfare regimes.

An Operationalization of the Strategic-Relational Approach: The Contested Privatization of the Mexican Oil Sector (1982–2006)

This article is based on the strategic-relational approach developed by Bob Jessop and investigates the contested privatization of the Mexican oil industry. Privatization has been rampant all over Latin America throughout the 1980s and 1990s. There are, however, some important exceptions from this general trend towards privatization which go widely unnoticed within the academic debate. The Mexican oil sector is one such exception as steps towards its privatization have been undertaken since the 1980s but until today ownership-rights for the enterprise remain with the Mexican state. The strategic-relational approach assumes that despite the pressure exercised by a post-Fordist accumulation regime towards privatization, the contingent interaction of actor strategies and institutions allows for alternative historical paths and may lead to the collapse of privatization processes. In order to conduct a detailed case study, an operationalization of the strategic-relational approach is necessary. Following this path, virgin soil is entered as date only a few attempts have been made to operationalize strategic-relational categories. The case study of the privatization conflict over the Mexican oil industry reveals that in this specific case decisive resistance against privatization stems from the Ministry of Finance, which is normally considered the most important institutional basis of neoliberalism in Mexico. Este artículo se basa en el enfoque relacional estratégico desarrollado por Bob Jessop, e investiga la controvertida privatización de la industria petrolera mexicana. Durante los años 80 y 90, la privatización ha sido dominante en toda Latinoamérica. Sin embargo, hay algunas excepciones importantes de esta tendencia general hacia la privatización, que han pasado desapercibidas en el debate académico. El sector petrolero mexicano hace parte de tal excepción, en la medida que los pasos hacia la privatización se iniciaron en los años 80, pero los derechos de propiedad de la empresa son del estado mexicano. El enfoque estratégico relacional asume que, a pesar de la presión ejercida por un régimen de acumulación hacia la privatización posterior a Ford, la interacción contingente entre las estrategias del actor y las instituciones permiten vías históricas alternas y pueden conducir al colapso de los procesos de privatización. Con el fin de llevar a cabo un estudio detallado del caso, es necesario adoptar un enfoque operacional de las relaciones estratégicas. Continuando con esta idea, hasta la fecha, muy poco se ha hecho para establecer categorías relacionales estratégicas de operación, ejemplo, las tierras vírgenes. El estudio del caso del conflicto de la privatización de la industria petrolera mexicana, revela que en este caso específico, la resistencia a la privatización del petróleo se origina en el Ministerio de Hacienda, considerado como la base institucional más importante del neoliberalismo en México. 本文是以鲍勃·杰索普所发展的战略-关系路径为基础，考察有争议的墨西哥石油工业私有化。在整个20世纪80年代和90年代，私有化在全拉美盛行。然而，在这一私有化的大趋势中，也存在一些重要的例外，它们在学术辩论中未受关注。墨西哥石油部门就是这样一个例外，因墨西哥石油部门的私有化20世纪80年代即开始着手，但至今公司的所有权仍掌握在国家手中。 战略-关系路径假定，尽管后福特主义的资本积累机制对私有化施加了压力，但行为体战略与机构之间有条件的互动提供了可供选择的历史路径，并可能导致私有化进程的瓦解。为了进行详细的案例研究，对战略-关系路径进行操作化是必要的。沿着这条路径，把未开垦的土地纳入了进来，因迄今为止只进行了个别尝试把战略-关系分类可操作化。 对墨西哥石油工业的私有化冲突案例研究表明，在这一特定例子中，反对私有化的决定性阻力来自通常被认为是墨西哥新自由主义最重要制度基础的财政部。

The Virtual Debt Factory: Towards an Analysis of Debt and Abstraction in the American Credit Crisis

Emanating from the United States, the ongoing global credit crisis has provided important insights into a shady new area of capitalist exploitation: the consumer debt factory. In an effort to speed up and quantifiably increase the circulation of consumer credit to match the consumption needs of post-Fordist accumulation, this industry—comprising financial institutions, consumer database companies, and credit rating agencies—has created a highly detailed body of information to stand-in for the corporeal self. This paper therefore examines this industry’s conceptualization of the self as a disembodied mechanism for mass-producing debt, creating a highly volatile informational commodity divorced from all material constraints. In using the credit crisis as a focal point, this paper considers how the far-reaching credit apparatus at the heart of the debt factory gives rise to the fatal abstractions that support, and ultimately undermine, contemporary capitalist economies. By substituting data for flesh, the credit industry has created an antagonism between the material and informational forms of the self, resulting in the construction of a virtual debtors prison. The ensuing analysis will highlight both the exploitative nature of this bifurcation as well as its profound contradictions.

The Virtual Debt Factory: Towards an Analysis of Debt and Abstraction in the American Credit Crisis

Emanating from the United States, the ongoing global credit crisis has provided important insights into a shady new area of capitalist exploitation: the consumer debt factory. In an effort to speed up and quantifiably increase the circulation of consumer credit to match the consumption needs of post-Fordist accumulation, this industry—comprising financial institutions, consumer database companies, and credit rating agencies—has created a highly detailed body of information to stand-in for the corporeal self. This paper therefore examines this industry’s conceptualization of the self as a disembodied mechanism for mass-producing debt, creating a highly volatile informational commodity divorced from all material constraints. In using the credit crisis as a focal point, this paper considers how the far-reaching credit apparatus at the heart of the debt factory gives rise to the fatal abstractions that support, and ultimately undermine, contemporary capitalist economies. By substituting data for flesh, the credit industry has created an antagonism between the material and informational forms of the self, resulting in the construction of a virtual debtors prison. The ensuing analysis will highlight both the exploitative nature of this bifurcation as well as its profound contradictions.

Hedonistic Consumerism: Patterns of Consumption in Contemporary Capitalism

The post-Fordist accumulation regime has drifted toward hedonistic consumerism: a mix of highly unequal and bourgeoning consumption. Since World War II, cultural and structural elements have led to a situation in which consumption, fostered by induced wants, far exceeds levels of basic need and tends to be monopolized by the wealthiest, both among and within nations. I suggest that a possible solution to these tensions may be found by applying Sen's notion of equality of opportunity to modern patterns of consumption.

Public education and the post-fordist accumulation regime: A case study of Australia

Public education and the post-fordist accumulation regime: A case study of Australia

Public education and the post-fordist accumulation regime: A case study of Australia

This paper discusses the current radical changes in the Australian education policy. Central to the argument is the claim that the radical restructuring of the public sector hastened the loss of the possibility of any critical evaluation of national policy.