Dear Jim and list, Jim, I don't think this gets to the heart of what happened in the 1970s. You put it down to neo-liberalism, but neo-liberalism is merely a policy at the level of the State, and it is not an ontological change in the structure of capitalism. But there WAS a major change that took place in the structure of not only American, but world, capitalism in the 1970s. That change was that in the 1970s for the first time in history TRANSNATIONAL capitalist corporations emerged which are so large in terms of turnover and product that they economically dwarfed all but the few richest nations, and they, for the first time in history, had come to collectively dominate economy and policy on a world scale, i.e. even the richest and most powerful nation-state - the USA - became in the 1970s very much subordinate to the transnational capitalist corporations. The age of capitalist nation-states dictating their own national economic policy completely died in the 1970s. Along with this, any attempt at reform on a merely national basis became utopian, if one takes account of this shift in power to the TRANSNATIONAL capitalist corporations. This has all been usefully summarised and theorised by Leslie Sklair in his books since 1990, though Sklair probably goes too far in suggesting that there is (already) a transnational capitalist class. That seems wrong, but the shift to transnational capitalist corporations now largely controlling economy and policy (instead of the State controlling them) is a fact and is a major change of which socialists need to take account if they are not to be starting from mistaken assumptions about the ontology of the world economy.
Phil Walden -----Original Message----- From: marxism-thaxis-boun...@lists.econ.utah.edu [mailto:marxism-thaxis-boun...@lists.econ.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Jim Farmelant Sent: 31 January 2010 16:35 To: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Setting the record straight On Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:55:44 -0500 Ralph Dumain <rdum...@autodidactproject.org> writes: > Looks like the real story to me. Notice the entry ends with Gerald > Ford. Social liberalism was killed off during the Carter > administration. The secret of all mysteries lies in the '70s. One of the ironies is that probably the greatest philosophical defense of American social liberalism, John Rawls's *A Theory of Justice* came out just as social liberalism was beginning to die out. I don't think that it is any great mystery what happened in the 1970s. In the mid-1970s, we had the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. It became clear that the institutional framework which modern capitalism had been working under since the 1930s and 1940s was no longer politically viable. It, therefore, came under challenge both from the left and the right. But as things turned out, the right (which was rapidly gaining the support of big business), was much better positioned to institute a new political framework than was the left. Hence, from the mid-1970s on, we see the rise of neo-liberalism, with the state attempting to promote economic expansion by holding down wages. Thus, the efforts to unravel the social safety net that that had been put in place under the New Deal and the Great Society. Jim F. http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant > > At 05:39 AM 1/26/2010, CeJ wrote: > >Sometimes in the American political lexicon, a 'liberal' is > someone > >who espouses a very weak form of > >'social democracy' European style. Classical liberals, an > >understanding most Americans know nothing of, have ended up over > >amongst the libertarians I suspect. I suspect the contradiction > that > >lies within Barrage Obushwa is warpigism vs. social > internventionist > >liberalism. A religious belief in America and its right to > dominate > >the world is always the glue that keeps such incoherence going. > > > >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_liberalism_in_the_United_States > > > >History of modern liberalism in the United States > >... > > > _________________________________________ > > "If you don't know the '70s, you don't know shit!" > > > _______________________________________________ > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis > > ____________________________________________________________ Criminal Lawyer Criminal Lawyers - Click here. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=QWemd8GuspwwZyl1yNMMaAAAJ1AP8t tsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAiFgAAAAA= _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
