PSCI 3606 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Antonio Gramsci, Social Forces, Neoliberalism
11 Jun 2018
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October 16, 2017
Critical approaches
Academic literature review.
• Each student is responsible for writing an analytical literature review of eight academic
sources that examines the broader questions and underlying issues of their chosen policy
scenario.
• The purpose of this essay is to develop an overview of the significant academic literature
published (similar cases in the past and or in other countries) and to summarize and
synthesize the arguments and ideas of other without adding new contributions.
• This is not an annotated bibliography, but needs to be organized as integrated paper with
a single thesis.
• Literature topics are posted on CUlearn and it is due October 30.
Historical materialism
• Antonio Gramsci and Robert Cox
- Equal emphasis on structure→ (economy) and superstructure (ideas)
- Broad understanding of hegemony that encompasses both coercion and consent→ the
consent did not mean support, but preventing opposition from re-accruing
• Tripartite understanding of politics:
- Material capabilities: destructive and productive power
- Ideas: divided into “intersubjective meanings” and “collective images of social order”
- Institutions: maintain and often mirror prevailing power relations.
Key concepts of historical materialism
• A historic bloc is the particular configuration of social classes and ideology that defines a
political order.
- Current order is identified as neoliberal global capitalism
- A transnational historic bloc reflects social forces across different states that share
material interest and ideology (finance capital)
• A crisis of over accumulation is caused by internal contradiction of capitalism resulting
in the reordering of production.
• Crisis destroys the value of some capital in the global system.
Why did Canada Bomb Libya?
• McMahon reviews, and dismisses four explanation cluster for Canadian involvement in
Libya:
- Justifying the purchase of the purchase of the F-35 fighter plan
- Serve the interests of corporation
- Substantiate the “principled” foreign policy of the Harper government
➢ Or relatedly, in service of the responsibility to protect doctrine.
- Provide the west with a degree of control in the region.
• In contrast, the war was driven by desire to destroy value within Libya to create new
venues for accumulation through reconstruction while simultaneously consuming capital
through materialism.
But, why Libya and Why Canada?
• Libya was made the space in which the surplus capital crisis was temporarily addressed
because of two interrelated reasons:
- One of the highest per capita incomes and human development rankings in Africa due
to the use and the distribution of oil rents.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Historical materialism: antonio gramsci and robert cox. Equal emphasis on structure (economy) and superstructure (ideas) Broad understanding of hegemony that encompasses both coercion and consent the consent did not mean support, but preventing opposition from re-accruing: tripartite understanding of politics: Ideas: divided into intersubjective meanings and collective images of social order . Institutions: maintain and often mirror prevailing power relations. Key concepts of historical materialism: a historic bloc is the particular configuration of social classes and ideology that defines a political order. Current order is identified as neoliberal global capitalism. Why did canada bomb libya: mcmahon reviews, and dismisses four explanation cluster for canadian involvement in. Justifying the purchase of the purchase of the f-35 fighter plan. Substantiate the principled foreign policy of the harper government. Or relatedly, in service of the responsibility to protect doctrine. Provide the west with a degree of control in the region.
