Neolibralism
Neolibralism
Basic concepts II: the Shifting fortune of the modern state
The first seminar is about the formation and transformation of the modern states or the advanced Capitalist countries. The inter-state rivalry between the nation states generates the immense sense of insecurity. According to Weber, war making or Militarism has been the most important factor for the modern state building. Resource extraction such as money and man power has to be achieved by the state through taxation and conscription. Technology developed to meet the warfare needs was later applied into the process of Industrialization. Besides, class coalition between the capital and the lower class was managed by the state in order to sustain the war. After the World War two, state claimed to transform themselves to a more civilized form: welfare state, which was considered as aiming at alleviating the tension between the capital and labor. However, the welfare state is a contradictory institution in which the state managed the double relation between the accumulation of capital and the legitimacy for the labor. When capitalist system still runs smoothly, it could remain harmony and the compromise could be achieved because the states want the cooperation of capital and labor for preparation of the war, however when the crisis appears, such as the Great Depression in the 1970s, this relationship could not be maintained and states usually find capital is more important and then chose to sign with the capital to support it to exploit the lower class. That’s the trend towards Neoliberalism. So far, it is the state-centered theory. Another society centered theory emphasis more on the function of social democracy in the liberalism system. The representative democracy in the liberalism system assumed that each political party represents each force in the society could compete with each other fairly and freely. However, the corporate interest is always to be defended and strong enough to push away
Basic concepts II: the Shifting fortune of the modern state
The first seminar is about the formation and transformation of the modern states or the advanced Capitalist countries. The inter-state rivalry between the nation states generates the immense sense of insecurity. According to Weber, war making or Militarism has been the most important factor for the modern state building. Resource extraction such as money and man power has to be achieved by the state through taxation and conscription. Technology developed to meet the warfare needs was later applied into the process of Industrialization. Besides, class coalition between the capital and the lower class was managed by the state in order to sustain the war. After the World War two, state claimed to transform themselves to a more civilized form: welfare state, which was considered as aiming at alleviating the tension between the capital and labor. However, the welfare state is a contradictory institution in which the state managed the double relation between the accumulation of capital and the legitimacy for the labor. When capitalist system still runs smoothly, it could remain harmony and the compromise could be achieved because the states want the cooperation of capital and labor for preparation of the war, however when the crisis appears, such as the Great Depression in the 1970s, this relationship could not be maintained and states usually find capital is more important and then chose to sign with the capital to support it to exploit the lower class. That’s the trend towards Neoliberalism. So far, it is the state-centered theory. Another society centered theory emphasis more on the function of social democracy in the liberalism system. The representative democracy in the liberalism system assumed that each political party represents each force in the society could compete with each other fairly and freely. However, the corporate interest is always to be defended and strong enough to push away