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Richard Peet Neoliberal Capitalism

Decent Essays

Neoliberalism, or an approach to economics and social studies in which control of economic factors is shifted from the public sector to the private sector, experienced a rise in the global north, which is hindering development. With the fall of the Soviet Union came the implementation of Structural Adjustment, which consist of loans provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) to countries that experienced economic crises. The Structural Adjustment was implemented in the global south, which allowed for liberal-capitalism to become globally hegemonic. With that being said, over the past couple of years, neoliberal capitalism has slowly declined due to economic/financial, political, and ecological crises.
An important …show more content…

Contradiction of Finance Capitalism, by Richard Peet, critiques global finance capitalism within this context. Peet states that “we now life in the era of global finance capitalism”, which suggests that whether we like it or not, the society we live in is capitalist so we might as well cope with it (Peet, p.1). Peet argues that it has overcome every part of the system, which has made it so hard to avoid. He said the finance capital is made up of “concentration and centralization of capital in large corporations, cartels, trusts, and banks” (Peet, p.1). Peet also refers to David Harvey who “has argued that ownership and management of capitalist enterprises have fused together, as upper management” (Peet, p.1). They argue that it is these capitalist entities control what happens with development. In other words, corporations have enough power that they now control states’ markets and what they invest in. Additionally, Peet discusses Randy Martin’s “the financialization of everything” to explain that finance has grown to be politically powerful, too (Peet, p.1). Corporations have been able to create monopolies and thus become hegemonies. They have realized that economic power creates political power. These government institutions are the “capitalist class” who claim to work on “democratization” and “equalization” …show more content…

Transnational Activism and Global Transformation: Post-National Politics and Activism for Climate Justice and Food Sovereignty, by J. Smith, & B. Duncan, discusses the transition of transnational activism and the movements they create. It talks about the impact the transnational networks have on transnational corporations, which is very much political. The article argues “that we are witnessing the emergence of new sphere of transnational activism whose practices, identities, and analyses are transformative, movement-centered, and autonomous from the inter-state order” (Smith & Duncan, p. 1). It is saying that these movements are moving away from government/state-led organizations and it is the people who are fighting “alone”. Smith and Duncan say that these new movements are seen as “helping to “normalize” utopias” (Smith & Duncan, p.2). This suggests that the utopias were created by government and corporate associations. This also means that state-led organizations are being challenged and politics are being confronted. The article makes it clear that there is not just the issue of climate change and transnational activism, but there is also the matter of the balance of power/politics once again; “Our ongoing research will explore the changes in transnational networks to test these hypotheses and compile qualitative evidence on cases--such as those discussed above--which

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