"A sovereign entity with the power to mobilize all of society"

November 4, 2023 2:17 AM

By the end of the 1990s, capital had triumphed and consolidated a new neoliberal spirit of the laws. But, as Maier makes clear, neoliberalism was not about expanding the reach of the market, the rallying cry of its advocates, per se. Rather, it was about shifting the income distribution from labor to capital. This was to be done by any means necessary. While it sometimes required deregulation and the removal of the state, it just as frequently required the use of state power – especially American power – and the legitimacy conferred by recommendations from Harvard experts. from The Evolution of Modern Political Power [Project Syndicate; ungated]
posted by chavenet (10 comments total)

To a large degree, neoliberalism was enabled (and perhaps originated because of) by the necessity of reforming some calcified and overly protectionist systems. As we tend to do when the pendulum swings, we went way too fucking far. Like, it wasn't good that we were propping up cartels in many industries, but we didn't need to go to the other extreme to stop doing that.

We always seem to have this fantasy that throwing out systems entirely will solve all our problems, but in reality it just creates new ones, oftentimes worse ones than we had to begin with.
posted by wierdo at 6:33 AM on November 4, 2023 [5 favorites]

This is why I worry about US people (who I agree with politically) talking about fundamental Constitutional reform. Yes, the Electoral College, the Second Amendment, etc. are shitty and it would be great to enshrine fundamental rights better and nullify Citizens United, and so on. But we could also end up with way, way worse than what we have, and the people with the money and the power would ensure that they get first crack at it. That doesn’t mean we stop working, but maybe save the big overhauls for after we eat the rich?
posted by rikschell at 6:43 AM on November 4, 2023 [14 favorites]

(Brad Delong also has some things to say about Maier's book.)

Levy points out what is probably the greatest challenge of returning power to the project state (and thus rebalancing the web of capital that seems like the only thing that has survived from Maier's rivalry)...and it's awfully depressing: "history shows that the project-state has always thrived most in times of war and military mobilization. [...] But since no sensible person wants outright war [ed: ha!], the pertinent question is whether it is possible to mobilize domestic support for transformative economic agendas without a motivating military threat. The answer is not clear. As the American philosopher William James observed over a century ago, one of the abiding challenges of modernity has been to find 'the moral equivalent of war.' We can only hope that the transition to a net-zero economy will furnish people with meaning in the way that glory on the battlefield once did."

In other words: We're doomed. Because nothing is as motivating as bloodlust, for granting popular legitimacy to the state. (Except of course, we're not really doomed--as he points out about 2008, the web of capital has legitimacy problems all its own.) (And could we see the return of resource states, with sun and wind and...I dunno, cobalt or something...as the resources?)
posted by mittens at 7:35 AM on November 4, 2023 [6 favorites]

Did someone say doom? (I agree, sadly, wholeheartedly with the linked comment)
posted by lalochezia at 7:44 AM on November 4, 2023 [3 favorites]

Unexamined premise that something (like capitalism) had to act to end project states, rather than project states being a 20th century aberration that went away naturally like most aberrations.

Complete fails to treat of China, which one could easily argue IS a project state and has been for 75 years.
posted by MattD at 8:05 AM on November 4, 2023 [4 favorites]

I do wonder if seriously addressing the climate crisis would count as a project in this context.
posted by doctornemo at 12:16 PM on November 4, 2023 [3 favorites]

We can only hope that the transition to a net-zero economy will furnish people with meaning in the way that glory on the battlefield once did.

Can't see that working when there are already so many cookers paranoid that things like COVID precautions and climate action are hoaxes ushering in government overreach, if not One World Government.

It seems that people need a tangible other-able enemy, and finding viruses and the laws of physics a little too intangible, the switch is very quickly made towards othering the government instead.
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:02 PM on November 4, 2023 [4 favorites]

^^I'm buying it.
posted by sneebler at 7:33 PM on November 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

What I find astounding in the article (and I infer the source material), is the lack of recognition that technology just made certain philosophies easier to factor and catalyze. Electronic capital in a walled garden, an abstraction of financial value similar to perceived rarity of certain metals, was just easier to compute.

If this oversight reflects on the journalism, I worry the author is cherry picking to make and bias his argument.
posted by bolix at 9:24 AM on November 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

We can only hope that the transition to a net-zero economy will furnish people with meaning in the way that glory on the battlefield once did."


If you re using the oil industry term "net zero" you have already conceded
posted by eustatic at 7:20 PM on November 5, 2023 [2 favorites]