new materialism by Paul Cammack
Global Political Economy, 2024
The capitalist mode of production gives rise to a crisis of working-class social reproduction fro... more The capitalist mode of production gives rise to a crisis of working-class social reproduction from the outset, and continually exacerbates that crisis in the course of its development. Far from being in principle a crisis for the capitalist mode of production itself, then, crises of working-class social reproduction are the empirical effects of changes in the capitalist economy, reflecting capitalist power over the fate of the propertyless population. The inherent characteristics of the capitalist mode of production – competition between individual capitals, uninterrupted scientific and technological revolution, an ever-increasing division of labour on local to global scales, the constant process of ‘creative destruction’as obsolete capitalist enterprises die and new ones are born, the universalisation of commodity production, concomitant to proletarianisation and the creation of a permanent ‘reserve army of labour’, and the tendency for capital to invade and take over any form of production more ‘primitive’ than itself – all continually disrupt areas of social and economic activity within capitalist social formations and those which capitalism has not fully penetrated yet. The effect of state government policies and governance on the part of international organisations is to induce or exploit crises of working-class social reproduction in order to further the hegemony of capital over their own territory and the world market as a whole.
Historical Materialism, 2020
Marx is generally reckoned to have had too little to say about what has come to be defined as ‘so... more Marx is generally reckoned to have had too little to say about what has come to be defined as ‘social reproduction’, largely as a consequence of too narrow a focus on industrial production, and a relative disregard for issues of gender. This paper argues in contrast that the approach he developed with Engels and in Capital, Volume 1, provides a powerful framework for its analysis. After an introductory discussion of recent literature on social reproduction the second section sets out Marx’s approach to the ‘production of life, both of one’s own in labour and of fresh life in procreation’. The third addresses his account of reproduction in Capital, Volume 1, Chapter 23. The fourth and fifth compare the relationship of the family to industry and exchange as depicted in Capital and in the present day respectively. The conclusion suggests some implications for theories of social reproduction.
Historical Materialism, Jan 1, 2003
The emergence of the G20 leaders' meeting during the recent global financial crisis as the ‘premi... more The emergence of the G20 leaders' meeting during the recent global financial crisis as the ‘premier forum for international economic cooperation’ reflects a significant shift of hegemony over global governance towards the emerging economies but does not challenge the authority or objectives of the international financial institutions. On the contrary, successive G20 initiatives, culminating in the adoption of the Seoul Development Consensus for Shared Growth in November 2010, reveal both a further strengthening of the already close institutional relationship between the G20 and the Bretton Woods institutions and a strong shared commitment to a developmental form of global liberalism. This article charts the ascendancy of emerging economy perspectives through the lens of the G20, maps their ties to the IMF and other international organisations, sets out the content of the new global developmental liberalism, and assesses the implications of emerging economy hegemony for the advanced and the emerging economies, respectively.
New Political Economy, 2001
Successive White Papers on International Development issued by New Labour in 1997 and 2000 show i... more Successive White Papers on International Development issued by New Labour in 1997 and 2000 show its unconditional acceptance of the World Bank's promotion of the development of the world market on the basis of proletarianisation of the poor.
Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, 1999
ABSTRACT
Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, 1999
... the inaugural Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Bangkok in March 1996, proposed originally by Sin... more ... the inaugural Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Bangkok in March 1996, proposed originally by Singapore's prime minis-ter Goh Chok Tong, and ... of wholehearted support for the IMF's pre-scriptions that, in the words of the European trade commissioner, Sir Leon Brittan, 'would ...
what's worth reading by Paul Cammack
What's Worth Reading, 2024
The idea of everyday depletion through social reproduction is a very good one, but it's a case of... more The idea of everyday depletion through social reproduction is a very good one, but it's a case of one step forward, two steps back.
What's Worth Reading, 2024
The central argument is ingenious, but there is not a shred of evidence to support it.
What's Worth Reading, 2024
A fruitless search for the 'inner nature' of state capitalism.
What's Worth Reading, 2024
A brilliant foundational account of mobile workers in the world market
What's Worth Reading, 2024
Must-read new foundation for understanding contemporary social life.
What's Worth Reading, 2024
A brilliant contribution to world literature, destined to be a classic. Review contains multiple ... more A brilliant contribution to world literature, destined to be a classic. Review contains multiple spoilers, so I suggest you buy and read the novel first.
What's Worth Reading, 2023
A bid to assert the hegemony of cosmopolitan liberalism over more critical approaches
What's Worth Reading, 2023
A fundamental contribution on capitalism and social reproduction
What's Worth Reading, 2023
Why the World Bank hates informal labour markets
What's Worth Reading, 2023
A heartfelt polemic, with some analytical flaws.
What's Worth Reading, 2023
An excruciatingly bad book - ill-conceived, clumsily executed, pretentious, and far too long.
What's Worth Reading, 2023
A psychosexual melodrama that has nothing to do with capitalism at all!
What's Worth Reading, 2022
The Case of the Wrong Stick
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new materialism by Paul Cammack
what's worth reading by Paul Cammack
this in order to reshape social relations and the relationship between citizens, markets and the state. This paper argues that in its general policy orientation the World Bank now promotes an agenda shared with other international and multilateral agencies,
especially the OECD, focused on building the human capital of workers, expanding employment, and making labour markets ever more competitive. The focus of the paper, therefore, is on the relationship between poverty reduction and the politics of
competitiveness. The paper discusses (i) the common ground between the ‘Washington Consensus’, the ‘Post-Washington Consensus’ and the strategy of global proletarianisation spelled out by the World Bank from 1990 onwards; (ii) the parallel
OECD/EU programme for restoring the hegemony of capital over labour in the developed world; and (iii) the current conventional wisdom of the international and regional institutions concerned with global economic governance. The conclusion assesses the
complementarity and contradictions between poverty reduction strategies and universal competitiveness.
This has far-reaching consequences for the relationship between capitalism and liberal democracy. In the past, its ideal-typical form combined management of both economic development and social provision by the state with a political system arising out of civil society
and remaining largely autonomous (a liberal polity, in other words, in a socio-economic framework managed by the state). In a future structured by globalization the ideal-typical pattern will be the reverse: an economic and social system shaped by liberal economic forces operating at a global level which states have limited capacity to resist, and a political system managed by the state in order to mitigate the consequences of global economic liberalism (a liberal economy, in other words, in a political framework managed by the state). States will take a more direct role in the management of their citizens, in order to compensate for their
decreasing inability to manage the broader social and political environment.Thus, globalization does not mean the end of the State, but possibly the end of liberal democracy.
The entry of China and India into the global economy involves not only the internal transformation of those two societies, but also a significant step towards what Marx called the ‘completion of the world market’ – the expansion of foreign trade and the transformation of social relations of production, and with that the intensification of competition across the global economy. They represent crucial cases, therefore, for the gang of four international organizations most closely concerned with the governance of labour markets, social policy and trade – the ILO, the OECD, the World Bank, and the WTO. Over the past two decades these organizations have converged, along with the IMF and the multilateral regional banks, on a programme aimed at reshaping socio-economic rights to make them consistent with and supportive of the rule of capital, and competitiveness in the global economy. This paper analyses the manner in which the Gang of Four seek to fit social and economic rights to the exigencies of the world market, and explores in detail the engagement of the OECD with China and India. The chapter shows that the four leading international organisations concerned with trade, employment, labour markets and social protection have converged on a set of policy prescriptions which centre on the imperative to reallocate labour towards higher productivity activity, and to tailor socio-economic rights to that end.
democratization literature. This article outlines the core ideas of the literature, in which conservative elitism rather than modernization theory provides the unifying thread. It then traces the failure of political development theory as theory in the 1960s and 1970s, and the emergence thereafter of a politics of pragmatism in which the core values of conservative elitism survive intact. Finally, it suggests some of the reasons for its renewed ascendancy.
A critique of political development theory from a Marxist/historical materialist perspective. I argue that what political development theorists from the 1950s onwards (Almond, Pye, Verba, Rustow, Huntington, etc) took to be a universal theory of political development is better understood as a theory of political change in societies undergoing a process of capitalist modernization, and that the driving force behind it, through all its various theoretical twists and turns, was the desire to produce a doctrine which would aid the promotion of capitalist rather than socialist development. There is an intimate relationship between the 'revisionist' theory of democracy associated with Schumpeter and Dahl, and political development theory: while the former is a theory of politics in already constituted capitalist states, and a doctrine aimed at maintaining the capitalist character of the societies concerned, the latteris a theory of politics in the process of capitalist modernization, and a doctrine aimed at guaranteeing the capitalist direction of change.
Co-authors: David Pool and William Tordoff
Introductory textbook. First edition covered Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Second edition added East and Southeast Asia.
Second edition chapter structure: Introduction; the Heritage of the Past; State and Society; Political Parties and Participation; The Military; Revolution; Women in World Politics; The International Context; The Third World in the Global Economy.