SOCA2400 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Noam Chomsky, Participatory Democracy, Libertarian Socialism
25 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
SOCA2400
Globalization, Social Justice, and Development
March 27, 2018
WEEK 5
Alternative Capitalisms vs Alternatives to Capitalism
General discussion of globalization and global change → Review mainstream
theories/discourses of globalization → Discuss popular myths around idea of capitalist
globalization (Economic/political liberalization) → Demystification of globalization
Discovered significant complexity related to partial/uneven/contradictory nature of
globalization → Explored significant connection between Globalization (growing
interconnectedness between societies, not neutral/natural/inclusive/consistent process,
has drivers and forces, multi-dimentional, contradictory) and Capitalism. History of
modern globalization is linked with history of capitalism, although these aren’t identical.
Focus on globalization and capitalism – associated with changes in lives of
communities/localities
Underlying these crises is a global network of economic and political power relations
rooted in the colonial era. These forces have reconstructed themselves through new
discourses/ideologies during the postcolonial and post-Cold War era. Sources of power
have always claimed there is no viable alternative to the current world order/system.
Globalization of knowledge made us aware of diversity. There are forces at work to
bring diversity under control (THEIR CONTROL) though homogenizing structures so
diversity is reduced to surface. New players under nationalism and populism argue for a
return to nationalist protectionism. However, these new forces use nationalist
frameworks to impose homogenization within their national borders by promoting ethno-
centrism.
Neoliberalism – about promoting aggressive/extreme capitalism
Myth 4: There Is No Alternative to Neoliberal Capitalism
• Margaret Thatcher
• Noam Chomsky – All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda
system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless,
that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume
• WSF – Another world is possible, Other worlds are possible
• Change is impossible without social action (AGENTS)
• Quran – God is not to change what is in a people until they change what is within
themselves
Alternatives
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• There are many alternatives
• Humans are innovating
o Always craving for the better, for the diferent
o They are unsatisfied creatures and tend to defy imposed laws on them
o They are selfish and greedy
o But also cooperative and rebellious by nature
• Alternatives are highly varied
o Continually contested and negotiated
o Cannot be reduced to a set of inevitable economic laws
o Successful non-capitalist sotries not covered in news or in history books
• Alternatives’ forms
o Practices
o Models
o Ideas
o Initiatives
o Imaginaries
o Measures
o Policies
Demystifying the Alternative
• Needs to be liberated from internalized capitalist mindset where we are
individual consumers who expect to buy/use already made things
• There is no single hegemonic system (capitalist/non-capitalist) that would allow
alternatives to grow within its framework
• Alternatives – believe in ourselves
• Maybe there is no single alternative
• Counter capitalists must heterogenize / diversify
o Opposite to capitalism that homogenizes society under one mode
• Diversity can be the strength, societies prior to global capitalism experienced
more of this
Classical Alternatives
1. Libertarianims
a. Neo-Classical
b. No state protectionism
c. Only individuals and free market
2. Socialism
a. State centered planning
b. New Socialism = participatory democracy + social ownership of means of
production
3. Anarchism
a. No state
b. Autonomous communities
4. Social Democracy
a. Keynesianism
b. Market regulated by state
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
c. Full employment
d. Universal welfare benefits
5. Populism / Fascism
a. Highly authoritarian state
b. Economic mafias
A broad range of progressive solutions and alternatives
How to Map the Alternatives
• What are the common threads? What are the major axes of controversy?
• How different are these alternatives to classical alternatives at the beginning of
the 20th century (libertarian socialism, communism, social democracy)?
• Is it possible to come to a consent over some principles?
• Many alternatives are utopian, unrealistic, idealistic, imaginary, untested, archaic,
not plausible, not feasible (?) Power of imagination
• Why is change necessary? How do you direct change?
Social Economy – elevate the third system to a strategic and dominant position in
relation to market and the state
A General Typology of Solutions
• Reformism-Protectionist – recovering nation-state
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
General discussion of globalization and global change review mainstream theories/discourses of globalization discuss popular myths around idea of capitalist globalization (economic/political liberalization) demystification of globalization. Discovered significant complexity related to partial/uneven/contradictory nature of globalization explored significant connection between globalization (growing interconnectedness between societies, not neutral/natural/inclusive/consistent process, has drivers and forces, multi-dimentional, contradictory) and capitalism. History of modern globalization is linked with history of capitalism, although these aren"t identical. Focus on globalization and capitalism associated with changes in lives of communities/localities. Underlying these crises is a global network of economic and political power relations rooted in the colonial era. These forces have reconstructed themselves through new discourses/ideologies during the postcolonial and post-cold war era. Sources of power have always claimed there is no viable alternative to the current world order/system. Globalization of knowledge made us aware of diversity. There are forces at work to bring diversity under control (their control) though homogenizing structures so diversity is reduced to surface.
