Capitalism obscured: the limits of law and rights-based approaches to poverty reduction and development

The Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor (CLEP) was established by the United Nations in 2005 and concluded in 2008. Although inspired by Hernando de Soto's analysis of the role of property rights in economic development, the scope of the Commission was defined as ‘legal empowerment’ in general. This commentary offers a critique of the CLEP report, and argues that its underlying assumptions rest on an idealised version of liberal democratic capitalism in which a dynamic market economy assures ‘win-win’ solutions for all. This implies that there are no tensions between the four ‘pillars’ of legal empowerment identified by CLEP (the rule of law, property rights, labour rights, and business rights). However, in the real world of capitalism, in both democratic and authoritarian versions, there are structural tensions between classes of capital and classes of labour, which result in the economy and its underlying institutional order becoming a key site of contestation. The case of farm labour in rural South Africa is used to illustrate this argument. A focus on legal rights can, however, be ‘empowering’ to a degree, when it helps defend poor people from exploitation and abuse, or is located within broader strategies to eradicate systemic poverty.     

算法行政:社会信用体系治理范式及其法治化

大数据下的信用评级机制生成独立于数据本体的数字人格。数字资本主义利用算法控制来推动金融信用的产生与发展,进而监控资本主义利用私有化"数字人格"实施黑箱管控。我国基于数据驱动的社会信用体系属于数字技术公共基础设施,在矫正监控资本主义逐利偏差的同时,生成与法律强制下行政管理方式相并行的算法行政。算法行政作为全新的权力工具导致数字社会治理机制的范式转化,这对法治国的传统法律原则提出挑战。福柯的"规训"理论可以解释基于数字人格的权力运作以及社会信用体系的正当性,也能解构算法行政生成的"自我规制型"问责制,由此生成全新的数字行政法学。这为我国社会信用系统的法律规制提供新形态的学科支撑,也为该制度输出提供西方话语体系中的说服工具。     

Crony capitalism in the Palestinian Authority: a deal among friends

Abstract

This article interrogates the multifaceted political–economic networks entrenched within the multiple structures of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA). The main argument of this article is that crony capitalism is a defining feature of the PA’s relations with a handful of capitalists and business groups. The demonstration of this argument is exhibited through the large-scale public and private monopolistic practices in strategic sectors of the Palestinian economy, which function within the framework of Israel’s settler-colonial reality and the persistent patterns of international aid to the occupied West Bank. While acknowledging the existence of cronyism as a feature of the capitalist system in its diverse typologies, crony capitalism may be more pronounced in situations characterised by political uncertainty, whereby political–business collusion strategizes the expansion of neo-patrimonial networks and rent-seeking opportunities as a meta-mechanism for social control and political stabilisation. In the Occupied Palestinian Territories, crony capitalism was developed as part of the political allegiances and economic alliances that underpin the structures created by the Oslo process, which are fostered by Israeli policies and the international donor community to maintain the cohesiveness of the PA regime.     

Hegel,Haiti and revolution: the post-colonial moment

Abstract

Susan Buck-Morss’s argument that the Haitian Revolution embodied the most universal aspect of the French Revolution, namely the quest for universal freedom, relies on the supposed references to Haiti in the master–slave dialogue in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. The revolution’s lodgement at the core of this foundational text of Enlightenment universalism is, for her, about as convincing a demonstration as one can have of the universal significance of the Haitian Revolution. Marxists have opposed her venture, and demonstrated their hostility to post-colonial thinking, principally by claiming that the master–slave is an expression of European class conflict. This paper agrees with Buck-Morss that the Haitian Revolution critically affirmed the principle of universal freedom and, indeed, pushed the revolution in France and Europe in a radical direction. A better affirmation of the universal significance of the Haitian Revolution than the thoughts of Hegel is possible. The latter do not actually provide such affirmation, because racism, Eurocentrism and a hostility to political radicalism are fundamental aspects of Hegel’s thought. The alternative affirmation can be found in Marxist analysis. This paper outlines such an analysis, and concludes that post-colonialism of Buck-Morss’s sort is no substitute for the perspective provided by historical materialism.     

从劳动视角解读马克思世界历史理论

人类劳动的辩证发展是历史向世界历史转变的深层动力。前资本主义社会的特殊劳动为人类历史起步提供了物质基础,形成了封闭、独立的民族历史;资本主义异化劳动下的生产方式通过扩展分工,展现人类改造自然的力量,建立了世界范围内的普遍交往,并将民族历史推向世界历史,但同时它也造成了人与自身,人与社会,人与自然关系的全面对立;世界历史未来的发展趋势是建立在对异化劳动的扬弃上的共产主义基础上,异化劳动向自由劳动转变,人将实现真正的全面的解放。     

The slow violence of corporate social responsibility: the case of mining in Peru

Drawing on fieldwork in three Andean regions of Peru, this article analyses the capacity of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to reduce mining-related violence in rural communities in developing countries. Within Peru, to some extent CSR has stabilised short-term relationships between mining corporations and nearby communities, although tensions remain high in others. While effects are varied and locally-contingent, the findings support a theoretical understanding of CSR as deeply embedded in legitimising the violence of capitalism, including the slow violence from degrading local environments.     

B.H.P.’s “Place in the Industrial Sun”: Whyalla in its Golden Age

Whyalla epitomised the promises of industrialism and consumerism during Australia’s Golden Age of capitalism, roughly 1945–1975. Located on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, Whyalla was a bustling industrial town (later a city) following the Second World War. It was home to the shipyard of Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP) and, from 1965, a steelworks. Before the war, Whyalla had been a company town, one planned and directed by BHP. Following the Second World War, it had morphed into a hybrid public–private town, albeit one that was heavily influenced by BHP, so much so that many still considered Whyalla to be a company town. Drawing from company materials, parliamentary records, oral histories, and the Whyalla News, this article argues that, together, BHP, the South Australian government, and residents conveyed and developed Whyalla to be an “Industrial Eden”. These actors forged postwar Whyalla to be a metaphor for what BHP, South Australia, and, ultimately, Australia had to offer. Whyalla represented progress, modernity, abundance, and stability. Moreover, it was presented and even accepted as a great place to live and work. For a moment, Whyalla was a capitalist utopia.     

Radical Reformism and the Marxist Critique

The mainstream environmental movement has tended to accept the continuation of capitalism and the growth economy. A de-materialization is hoped to follow from limits on the use of natural resources. Eco-Marxists have opposed this strategy, claiming environmental problems are intrinsic to capitalism. More recently a tendency which I will call “radical reformism” has been gaining strength. Radical reformists argue that a growth economy is not compatible with environmental limits. They look to regulate capitalism to prevent growth. The overall intention is for a peaceful transition within a broadly capitalist economy. The eco-Marxist critique of mainstream environmentalism can also be applied to radical reformism. While radical reformists may have some answers to this critique, these answers bring further problems.     

资本主义文化价值观二重性剖析

马克思主义经典作家认为,资本主义文化价值观具有尖锐的内在矛盾和冲突,具有鲜明的二重性,它必然被更高阶段的文化价值观所代替。经典作家的这一观点为我们正确认识资本主义文化价值观提供了根本的方法论指导。而中外许多学者对资本主义文化价值观的二重性也进行过深入的分析和批判,为我们提供了诸多有益的借鉴。在经济全球化趋势日益加深、我国正在积极构建社会主义核心价值体系的今天,科学认识资本主义文化价值观的二重性具有十分重要的意义。     

邓小平对待资本主义文化成果的科学方法

利用资本主义优秀文化成果建设社会主义是马克思主义文化观的一个基本观点。邓小平运用马克思主义历史分析法、阶级分析法、辩证法、拿来主义等科学地分析资本主义文化成果,强调利用资本主义优秀文化成果必须与中国实际相结合,并着眼于发展社会主义生产力、建设社会主义现代化和发挥社会主义制度的优越性。在全球化浪潮风起云涌、中外文化交流蓬勃发展的今天,邓小平对待资本主义文化成果的科学方法仍然具有很强的现实指导意义。