Saturday, October 31, 2015

Why the state matters

by Christian Parenti in Jacobin:
"The developmental state has come under fire from both left and right. Neoliberals see the state as a rent-seeking, corrupt, inefficient, market-distorting parasite. Some on the Left reject the very concept of “development” as normalizing and teleological, fixated on economic growth at the expense of the environment and human rights.
These are often valid points. Yet development — by which I mean economic transformation and technological change — and the developmental state have much to offer."
After descring the state role in the development of various countries, he concludes:
"But for the state to act, political elites must be targeted by movements, made to feel threatened enough to exercise the state’srelative autonomy to capital’s short-term prerogatives. Local initiatives, moral suasion, rational appeals — none of these will suffice.
We need movements that, at least for now, seek to use state power to force capital into new patterns of investment and technological development. Thankfully, the US climate movement is increasingly doing that, for example, by targeting the federal government’s fossil-fuel leasing on public lands, but much more is needed."
Not clear to me. Various treaties like TPP are being passed eo usurp democracy and state power even more.

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