Understanding the Politics of Latin America's Plural Lefts (Chávez/Lula): social democracy,populism and convergence on the path to a post-neoliberal world

This article explores the academic and public debate on the politics of Latin America's twenty-first century turn towards the left. It rejects dichotomous categorisations of ‘social democratic’ and ‘populist’ lefts as a disciplinary move by neoliberals that appeals to entrenched liberal predispositions. It suggests that such classificatory taxonomies are directly linked to an impoverished notion of the political, in which a politics of exalted expertise and enlightenment, based on reason, rationality and objectivity is juxtaposed against a lesser sphere of emotion, passion and ‘personalism’. This underlying dualism, which permeates academic disciplines and crosses lines of ideology, tracks established markers of hierarchical distinction in societies profoundly divided along multiple lines of class and cultural capital. This is explored through an analysis of the discourse of Chávez vis-a-vis Lula, while offering an appreciation of the subaltern origin of Lula's distinctive style of political leadership, from trade unionism to the presidency, based upon the creation of spaces of convergence.     

World Turned Upside Down? Rise of the global South and the contemporary global financial turbulence

By focusing on the consequences of the dismantling of regulations over the financial sector, the current debate on the causes of the global economic meltdown obscures the cyclical occurrence of speculation in capitalism, as the accumulation of more capital than can be profitably invested in the production and sale of commodities results in financial expansion. Historically financial expansion has signalled the end of one world-scale system of accumulation and the transition to a new system as capital flows from declining powers to rising powers. However, the contemporary period is distinguished by capital flows from rising powers to declining ones. An analysis of the current crisis suggests a reversal of this anomaly as it reduces the ability of China and other East Asian states to support the US dollar. At the same time ‘emerging market economies’ have begun to forge new relationships that could provide the framework for a new system of partnership between states and enterprises to reconstruct a new cycle of accumulation if two hurdles are overcome: 1) absorption of labour that is being displaced because of the high organic composition of capital and 2) dampening of the growing inequalities in income which has not only restricted the growth of markets but is also fuelling increasing social conflict.     

The value of pointillism? Integrating trade and development and the European Union as a global actor

As the contributions to this volume make clear, the intersection between the European Union's (EU) trade and development policies is populated by a diverse array of policies. The EU's selection of policies reflects, in part, the level of development of the developing country and competing understandings of how to best foster development. The contributions also hint at significant contributions to wider debates about the EU as a global actor, particularly the extent to which it is motivated by normative considerations and how affective it is in achieving its objectives. This article reviews the main findings of the contributions to this volume and advances some suggestions so as to enable a clearer picture to emerge that could more readily inform wider debates.     

The goals and reality of the water–food–energy security nexus: the case of China and its southern neighbours

The so-called ‘nexus’ approach has recently been promoted as addressing externalities across the water, food and energy sectors, thus helping to achieve ‘water/energy/food security for all’, ‘equitable and sustainable growth’ and a ‘resilient and productive environment’. While these are noble goals, this article argues that the reality on the ground appears to be taking a different direction, at least when it comes to China and its neighbours in South and Southeast Asia. There, a new era of large-scale water infrastructure development is creating several security-related problems, which represent serious challenges to the nexus goals. These challenges include food–energy tensions, human security threats and ecological risks. These challenges can also be linked to rising friction surrounding the management of water, food and energy resources in the region. The article argues that, in order for the nexus goals to be achieved in China and the countries on its southern periphery, there must first be increased awareness of this nexus among policy-making elites.     

Building the Education Revolution: Another Case of Australian Government Failure?

Since the 2007 federal election, the Australian government has implemented a plethora of new programs, many with dual economic and social objectives. A significant number of these initiatives have not only proved unsuccessful, but have also been criticized for their implementation and subsequent administration. This paper examines the Building Education Revolution Program, which commenced in 2009 with the objective of stimulating employment growth and improving school infrastructure, through the analytical prism of the government failure paradigm as well as the literature on “hollowing out” and decentralization. It is argued that the BER Program represents a “case study” of how governments should not pursue large-scale public expenditure programs.     

‘Bankable Slums’: the global politics of slum upgrading

This article develops a critical analysis of the Slum Upgrading Facility, a new initiative of UN-Habitat which seeks to improve conditions for residents of slums in Africa and elsewhere. The analysis highlights the neoliberal principles underpinning this initiative, and especially the vision of slum improvement by means of financialisation. The article argues that it is necessary and important to recognise the politics of international urban development and housing, which has since the 1970s increasingly emphasised neoliberal principles of private property and market institutions. The novel ambition of financialisation must also be situated in relation to historical transformations of housing finance in Anglo-American capitalism over the past three decades. After situating the ideological principles underpinning the Slum Upgrading Facility in these longer and broader global trajectories of international policy, the final section returns to the present to examine other initiatives currently being pursued alongside slum upgrading: the active promotion of mortgage markets in Africa.     

Escaping the ‘Field Trap’: exploitation and the global politics of educational fieldwork in ‘conflict zones’

There is a growing global demand for Northern universities to provide fieldwork opportunities in ‘conflict zones’ to students in applied International Relations (peace and conflict studies, post-conflict studies, human rights, development and related fields). This demand is generated in macro-level or structural dynamics emerging from three sources: the hiring criteria of major international organisations, competition between universities for fee-paying students and the social commodification of ‘authentic’ or ‘real’ life experience. At the micro level these dynamics can manifest themselves in exploitative relations, two of which are explored here. First, substantial inequalities (or a ‘benefit gap’) may arise between student researchers and their research subjects. Second, student researchers may find themselves in extractive relations with their research subjects. These dynamics lead to a situation in which some of the world’s most vulnerable people are objectified as learning resources for students enrolled in (predominantly Northern) universities. The article argues that these dynamics are a problem of global politics, not just research ethics or pedagogy. It concludes with recommendations for reducing the potential for exploitation in educational fieldwork.     

Social darwinism and the taylor system: a missing link in the evolution of management?

Whereas linkages between Social Darwinism and Frederick Taylor's system of Scientific Management have been noted, there has been little elaboration on the relationship. In this paper, the parallels between the Social Darwinist theory of Herbert Spencer and the major tenets of Taylorism are explored. By the early 20th Century, members of the business community and leaders of organized labor had developed very different attitudes toward the principle of “survival of the fittest.” These opinions, informed by the prevailing ethos of society, appear to have colored business's and labor's reactions to Taylor's Scientific Management system. In addition, management historians may have developed different views concerning the strength of the relationship between Social Darwinism and Scientific Management because of the various forms of Social Darwinist theory.     

Law transformed: Guantánamo and the ‘other’ exception

Guantánamo Bay is almost unanimously seen as an exceptional space inhabited by ‘bare life’. This article unpacks the double rendering of the exception in Carl Schmitt's work and argues that the conceptualisation of the exception in The Nomos of the Earth can help us understand the form of exception that is at work in the ‘war on terror’. The nomos as the junction of order and orientation appears as a way of closing off the space of political decision from Schmitt's earlier concept of the political. The constitution of order is no longer dependent upon the sovereign decision on the exception, but upon the division and appropriation of space, upon the geopolitics of uncontested spatialisations and a philosophy of concrete life. Therefore, Guantánamo will be exposed not as a singular and exceptional occurrence, but as symptomatic of the transformation of law. Law is moulded onto the order of what is; it is sustained by the situational characteristics of spaces and people at a distance from the contingency of sovereign decisions.     

The Postcolonial World and the Recourse to Myth: a critique of Albert Memmi’s Decolonization and the Decolonized

The seminal postcolonial thinker Albert Memmi’s reactionary turn with the publishing of Decolonization and the Decolonized provides an excellent opportunity to properly contextualise the conditions of the Third World. In this article, emphasis is laid on the necessity of linking the postcolonial world’s dire condition to the role of Western powers and economic processes of globalisation. Memmi’s primary shortcoming is his failure to examine these connections with any nuance, and instead choosing to blame the Third World’s condition on corrupt leaders and governments. Consequently, a focused critique of his work can serve as a valuable foundation for a broader critique of the general patterns of capitalism and its global effects. By examining the inconsistencies and obfuscations of this work in detail, both Memmi and the ideas he professes can be appropriately confronted.     

Public–private partnerships (ppps) in global health: the good,the bad and the ugly

Global Health Partnerships (ghps) have become ubiquitous within global health governance (ghg). Even before the onset of the global financial crisis public–private partnerships (ppps) were an omnipresent policy tool in global health and in the current austerity climate ppps have been heralded as an effective way to address a growing resource gap in ghg. Despite their omnipresence, ghps have not received adequate attention from critical scholars; few efforts have been made conceptually and theoretically to grasp how ppps are transforming the logic of ghg. We argue that ghps have contributed to the emergence of a complex global health governance architecture in which private solutions (market mechanism) are generally privileged over public approaches. Drawing on Gramscian conceptualisations of public/private, we suggest that the reshaping of the private and public realm inherent to ppps represents a further deepening of the neoliberal management of individuals and populations, allowing private interest to become more embedded within the public sphere and to influence global and national health policy making. This undermines the attempt to improve global health results as the inequitable distribution of social determinants of health, especially poverty and social exclusion, remain the main barriers to achieving health for all.     

The New World Order: A Deconstruction of the Nation-State and a Disaggregation of the “Mixed Political Economy”

The structure of the New World Order and its corresponding functions are becoming apparent. First, there will be a deconstruction of the nation-state. It will be bisected as power shifts to higher “macro-regional” levels on the one hand and lower “micro-regional” levels on the other. Second, there will be a disaggregation of the mixed political economy. It will be bifurcated as socialism is used at upper levels of human aggregation to alleviate pollution and as capitalism is used at lower levels to alleviate poverty.     

The Soviet Famine of 1931–1934: Genocide,a Result of Poor Harvests,or the Outcome of a Conflict Between the State and the Peasants?

Abstract

Interpretation of the Soviet famine of 1931–1934 (mainly in 1933) has long given rise to controversy. Publication of a Russian monograph by the leading spokesman for Russia in the international debates on the famine provides an opportunity both to analyse this Russian interpretation and to sum up the present state of knowledge about the famine and its causes.     

Thinking about the ‘Local’ of Local Government: a Brief History of Invention and Reinvention

In 2004, Local Government Studies published an article in which I reflected on the implications of new Labour’s modernisation agenda for the remaking of local government and the reshaping of the welfare state. Here I return to some of the issues raised in that paper in the different context of localism, austerity and dreams of urban entrepreneurialism. I argue that exploring the changing meanings of the local, as a contested political as well as geographical category, is a fundamental task for those of us seeking to understand the nature of contemporary local government; the wider processes of state restructuring which frame it; and the possibilities of local politics.