Pub Date : 2022-02-01DOI: 10.1177/10245294211060123
D. Monaco
Over the last decade, the succession of financial crisis, neoliberal reform processes, and emergence of anti-establishment and far-right political forces has become a familiar pattern across Europe. But in few countries has it been as striking as in Italy. After the 2018 national elections, the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement (M5S) and the far-right League joined forces to form a government characterised by its rejection of past neoliberalising reforms and by its defiant stance towards European Union fiscal rules. The League’s victory in the latest European elections confirmed its ascendance and its centrality in the Italian political landscape. This article examines these developments in light of the recent trajectory of the Italian political economy and investigates whether the rise of these parties, and particularly the League, marked a break with the post-2011 neoliberalisation process. Analysis of the M5S-League government’s action indicates that these forces can further neoliberalisation processes together with a mix of anti-migration and welfare chauvinist measures. Moreover, an investigation of the political-economic project of the League shows that far-right parties can advance ‘nation-based’ neoliberalisation processes.
{"title":"The rise of anti-establishment and far-right forces in Italy: Neoliberalisation in a new guise?","authors":"D. Monaco","doi":"10.1177/10245294211060123","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211060123","url":null,"abstract":"Over the last decade, the succession of financial crisis, neoliberal reform processes, and emergence of anti-establishment and far-right political forces has become a familiar pattern across Europe. But in few countries has it been as striking as in Italy. After the 2018 national elections, the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement (M5S) and the far-right League joined forces to form a government characterised by its rejection of past neoliberalising reforms and by its defiant stance towards European Union fiscal rules. The League’s victory in the latest European elections confirmed its ascendance and its centrality in the Italian political landscape. This article examines these developments in light of the recent trajectory of the Italian political economy and investigates whether the rise of these parties, and particularly the League, marked a break with the post-2011 neoliberalisation process. Analysis of the M5S-League government’s action indicates that these forces can further neoliberalisation processes together with a mix of anti-migration and welfare chauvinist measures. Moreover, an investigation of the political-economic project of the League shows that far-right parties can advance ‘nation-based’ neoliberalisation processes.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46932214","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-27DOI: 10.1177/10245294211068102
A. Ganguly, R. Vasudevan
A distinct feature of the India’s path of financial liberalization is that it led to the emergence of the corporate, non-financial sector, rather than the financial sector as the key wedge for the penetration of global finance. Neoliberal reforms eroded the traditional role of development banks and state-directed credit and empowered a section of large corporations and non-financial companies in India. The partial, calibrated path to capital account liberalization has meant that this section of the Indian non-financial corporate sector, rather than the commercial banking system came to be the conduit integrating the Indian economy with international financial markets. Where the Indian state had earlier harnessed finance towards developmental priorities, it shifted to channeling finance in service of the internationally embedded segment of the corporate sector that enjoys disproportionate access to both the domestic financial system and international financial markets. JEL CodesE44 G32, F65
{"title":"Financial liberalization and the Indian non-financial, corporate sector","authors":"A. Ganguly, R. Vasudevan","doi":"10.1177/10245294211068102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211068102","url":null,"abstract":"A distinct feature of the India’s path of financial liberalization is that it led to the emergence of the corporate, non-financial sector, rather than the financial sector as the key wedge for the penetration of global finance. Neoliberal reforms eroded the traditional role of development banks and state-directed credit and empowered a section of large corporations and non-financial companies in India. The partial, calibrated path to capital account liberalization has meant that this section of the Indian non-financial corporate sector, rather than the commercial banking system came to be the conduit integrating the Indian economy with international financial markets. Where the Indian state had earlier harnessed finance towards developmental priorities, it shifted to channeling finance in service of the internationally embedded segment of the corporate sector that enjoys disproportionate access to both the domestic financial system and international financial markets. JEL CodesE44 G32, F65","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2022-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44542175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-20DOI: 10.1177/10245294211059138
Asbjørn Karlsen, H. B. Lund, M. Steen
Specialized clusters rely on common knowledge resources and extra-cluster linkages, but how such resources develop over time is unclear. A case in point is how extra-cluster linkages are integrated into intra-cluster networks and the role of different cluster actors in enhancing cluster absorptive capacity. The paper explores the role of cluster intermediaries in linking clusters to external knowledge sources and contributing to knowledge dissemination among cluster firms. This perspective is relevant as manufacturing firms are facing rapid changes in technology, such as those associated with ‘Industry 4.0’. Two manufacturing clusters in Norway are studied regarding cluster absorptive capacities and the role of cluster intermediaries. The authors derive two types of cluster intermediaries with different kinds of service provision well-adjusted to the firm structure. Cluster intermediaries in both cluster contexts can assist firms in tracking and adapting to rapid technological developments.
{"title":"The roles of intermediaries in upgrading of manufacturing clusters: Enhancing cluster absorptive capacity","authors":"Asbjørn Karlsen, H. B. Lund, M. Steen","doi":"10.1177/10245294211059138","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211059138","url":null,"abstract":"Specialized clusters rely on common knowledge resources and extra-cluster linkages, but how such resources develop over time is unclear. A case in point is how extra-cluster linkages are integrated into intra-cluster networks and the role of different cluster actors in enhancing cluster absorptive capacity. The paper explores the role of cluster intermediaries in linking clusters to external knowledge sources and contributing to knowledge dissemination among cluster firms. This perspective is relevant as manufacturing firms are facing rapid changes in technology, such as those associated with ‘Industry 4.0’. Two manufacturing clusters in Norway are studied regarding cluster absorptive capacities and the role of cluster intermediaries. The authors derive two types of cluster intermediaries with different kinds of service provision well-adjusted to the firm structure. Cluster intermediaries in both cluster contexts can assist firms in tracking and adapting to rapid technological developments.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2022-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42206702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-09DOI: 10.1177/10245294211049501
R. Labanino
{"title":"Gábor Scheiring, The Retreat of Liberal Democracy: Authoritarian Capitalism and the Accumulative State in Hungary","authors":"R. Labanino","doi":"10.1177/10245294211049501","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211049501","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49515200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-23DOI: 10.1177/10245294211044314
Alexis Moraitis
The post-2008 era saw a return of the manufacturing fetish, the idea that manufacturing constitutes the flywheel of growth without which no nation can thrive. Across the Global North and South, voices are calling to reverse deindustrialization and revive manufacturing. While today deindustrialization is met with anxiety, in the 1930s economists predicted deindustrialization but interpreted it as a liberating process leading to a post-industrial age based on material abundance and widespread economic security. Far from delivering this vision, deindustrialization actually produces a precarious economic order driven by labour precarity, economic stagnation and lost development opportunities for the Global South. What can be termed the Baumolian and Kaldorian frameworks, attribute this precarious reality to services’ inability to replace manufacturing as a growth engine given their technologically stagnant nature. However, this article argues that, by focusing on the technical aspects of service economies, such views overlook the social limits of the capitalist economy and its historically specific conception of wealth, value. As capitalism matures, productivity becomes an increasingly inadequate form of augmenting social wealth as it results in great increases in physical output but counterintuitively undermines the expansion of value. Capitalism is underpinned by a secular movement towards declining dynamism, as it increasingly struggles to maintain its former economic vigour. Stagnation and heightened labour precarity are not merely the product of tertiarization but symptoms of capitalism’s declining trajectory.
{"title":"From the post-industrial prophecy to the de-industrial nightmare: Stagnation, the manufacturing fetish and the limits of capitalist wealth","authors":"Alexis Moraitis","doi":"10.1177/10245294211044314","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211044314","url":null,"abstract":"The post-2008 era saw a return of the manufacturing fetish, the idea that manufacturing constitutes the flywheel of growth without which no nation can thrive. Across the Global North and South, voices are calling to reverse deindustrialization and revive manufacturing. While today deindustrialization is met with anxiety, in the 1930s economists predicted deindustrialization but interpreted it as a liberating process leading to a post-industrial age based on material abundance and widespread economic security. Far from delivering this vision, deindustrialization actually produces a precarious economic order driven by labour precarity, economic stagnation and lost development opportunities for the Global South. What can be termed the Baumolian and Kaldorian frameworks, attribute this precarious reality to services’ inability to replace manufacturing as a growth engine given their technologically stagnant nature. However, this article argues that, by focusing on the technical aspects of service economies, such views overlook the social limits of the capitalist economy and its historically specific conception of wealth, value. As capitalism matures, productivity becomes an increasingly inadequate form of augmenting social wealth as it results in great increases in physical output but counterintuitively undermines the expansion of value. Capitalism is underpinned by a secular movement towards declining dynamism, as it increasingly struggles to maintain its former economic vigour. Stagnation and heightened labour precarity are not merely the product of tertiarization but symptoms of capitalism’s declining trajectory.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42148881","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-13DOI: 10.1177/10245294211043355
Kyunghoon Kim
This paper analyses the performance and appropriateness of the Indonesian government’s ‘good governance’ institutional reform aimed at stimulating infrastructure construction. During the 15 years after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the government attempted to strengthen formal institutions with the goal of improving public investment efficiency and attracting private investors. By analysing policies in the construction industry in terms of company registration, procurement and state enterprises, the paper finds that the outcome was far from what was expected by technocratic-bureaucratic reform promoters as interest groups frequently succeeded in capturing the new institutional system. This paper then challenges the dominant narrative that overwhelmingly blames incomplete institutional reform for Indonesia’s slow infrastructure construction. Given the inherent market failure and political challenges in institutional reform, the paper argues that passive developmentalist policies, which resulted in conflictual state–business relations and insufficient public investment, were a prime cause that then set the stage for the emergence of state-led infrastructure development strategy from the mid-2010s.
{"title":"Analysing Indonesia’s infrastructure deficits from a developmentalist perspective","authors":"Kyunghoon Kim","doi":"10.1177/10245294211043355","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211043355","url":null,"abstract":"This paper analyses the performance and appropriateness of the Indonesian government’s ‘good governance’ institutional reform aimed at stimulating infrastructure construction. During the 15 years after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the government attempted to strengthen formal institutions with the goal of improving public investment efficiency and attracting private investors. By analysing policies in the construction industry in terms of company registration, procurement and state enterprises, the paper finds that the outcome was far from what was expected by technocratic-bureaucratic reform promoters as interest groups frequently succeeded in capturing the new institutional system. This paper then challenges the dominant narrative that overwhelmingly blames incomplete institutional reform for Indonesia’s slow infrastructure construction. Given the inherent market failure and political challenges in institutional reform, the paper argues that passive developmentalist policies, which resulted in conflictual state–business relations and insufficient public investment, were a prime cause that then set the stage for the emergence of state-led infrastructure development strategy from the mid-2010s.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42436105","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-13DOI: 10.1177/10245294211045453
M. Crossa
Contrary to the triumphalist rhetoric that describes the automotive industry as a lever for both regional development in North America and industrial upgrading in Mexico, this article argues that the formation of the Mexico–U.S. automotive complex has instead been consolidated on the basis of longstanding processes of uneven regional development. To make this argument, the paper examines how global economic restructuring, trade policies, domestic economic development processes, transnational firm decision making and the maintenance of the geopolitical border have reproduced extreme wage differences between the United States and Mexico, resulting in the creation of a regional automotive sector that is both highly integrated and highly unequal. In this scenario, both nations are home to profoundly different industrial landscapes: the U.S. hosts the highest value-added links of the production chain, monopolizing processes of innovation and scientific and technological knowledge production, while in contrast, Mexico manufactures the most labour intense and lowest value-added links of the automotive production chain. From this perspective, the Mexican economy can be essentially understood as an export manufacturing platform which derives its ‘competitiveness’ from the aggressive industry maintenance of low wages.
{"title":"Contorting transformations: Uneven impacts of the U.S.–Mexico automotive industrial complex","authors":"M. Crossa","doi":"10.1177/10245294211045453","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211045453","url":null,"abstract":"Contrary to the triumphalist rhetoric that describes the automotive industry as a lever for both regional development in North America and industrial upgrading in Mexico, this article argues that the formation of the Mexico–U.S. automotive complex has instead been consolidated on the basis of longstanding processes of uneven regional development. To make this argument, the paper examines how global economic restructuring, trade policies, domestic economic development processes, transnational firm decision making and the maintenance of the geopolitical border have reproduced extreme wage differences between the United States and Mexico, resulting in the creation of a regional automotive sector that is both highly integrated and highly unequal. In this scenario, both nations are home to profoundly different industrial landscapes: the U.S. hosts the highest value-added links of the production chain, monopolizing processes of innovation and scientific and technological knowledge production, while in contrast, Mexico manufactures the most labour intense and lowest value-added links of the automotive production chain. From this perspective, the Mexican economy can be essentially understood as an export manufacturing platform which derives its ‘competitiveness’ from the aggressive industry maintenance of low wages.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43971441","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Craig Berry, Julie Froud and Tom Barker (eds), The Political Economy of Industrial Strategy in the UK","authors":"Inga Rademacher","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1mvw8s5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1mvw8s5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46018072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-10DOI: 10.1177/10245294211044039
Inga Rademacher
Reviewed by: Inga Rademacher, King’s College London, UK
审稿人:英加·拉德马赫，伦敦国王学院，英国
{"title":"Craig Barry, Julie Froud and Tom Barker (eds), The Political Economy of Industrial Strategy in the UK","authors":"Inga Rademacher","doi":"10.1177/10245294211044039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211044039","url":null,"abstract":"<b>Reviewed by:</b> Inga Rademacher, King’s College London, UK","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138534101","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-06DOI: 10.1177/10245294211039671
Stavros D Mavroudeas
This book offers a thorough and compelling analysis of the significance of the notion of fetishism for Marxist Political Economy. In contrast to Dobb’s (1979: 11) argument that the theories of fetishism and alienation belong to the Marxist theory of ideology, McNeill argues that they are sine qua non parts of the qualitative aspect of Marx’s Labour Theory of Value (LTV). This is a correct claim that the author proves convincingly, even though McNeill tends to downplay the quantitative aspect by stating that this was of no concern to Marx. Marxist Political Economy engages with both dimensions. The broader framework within which the author conducts his analysis is the accurate thesis that the Marxist perspective remains relevant in the 21st century. The current crises and turmoil of the capitalist economy, the blatant failure of mainstream economics and the subsequent revival of interest in Marxian Political Economy attest to this. The first part of the book examines the development of the notion of fetishism in Marx’s works, from an initial journalistic metaphor to a fully developed scientific concept. This analysis is extended in Part II where McNeill rigorously establishes the generic category of commodity fetishism and then its relationship to other forms of fetishism (money, capital and interest-bearing capital). He bolsters his exposition with a meticulous and accurate juxtaposition of Marx’s dialectical approach with that of Ricardo and Samuel Bailey (a critic of Ricardo and precursor of the Marginalist theory) regarding the nature of value. He accurately pinpoints Marx’s fundamental difference with both, namely his con-sideration of value as a social rather than a natural phenomenon. McNeill also juxtaposes Marx’s materialist dialectics with Hegel’s idealist dialectics. These two parts constitute the backbone of the book and offer original contributions to Marxist Political Economy.
{"title":"Desmond McNeill, Fetishism and the Theory of Value: Reassessing Marx in the 21st Century","authors":"Stavros D Mavroudeas","doi":"10.1177/10245294211039671","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211039671","url":null,"abstract":"This book offers a thorough and compelling analysis of the significance of the notion of fetishism for Marxist Political Economy. In contrast to Dobb’s (1979: 11) argument that the theories of fetishism and alienation belong to the Marxist theory of ideology, McNeill argues that they are sine qua non parts of the qualitative aspect of Marx’s Labour Theory of Value (LTV). This is a correct claim that the author proves convincingly, even though McNeill tends to downplay the quantitative aspect by stating that this was of no concern to Marx. Marxist Political Economy engages with both dimensions. The broader framework within which the author conducts his analysis is the accurate thesis that the Marxist perspective remains relevant in the 21st century. The current crises and turmoil of the capitalist economy, the blatant failure of mainstream economics and the subsequent revival of interest in Marxian Political Economy attest to this. The first part of the book examines the development of the notion of fetishism in Marx’s works, from an initial journalistic metaphor to a fully developed scientific concept. This analysis is extended in Part II where McNeill rigorously establishes the generic category of commodity fetishism and then its relationship to other forms of fetishism (money, capital and interest-bearing capital). He bolsters his exposition with a meticulous and accurate juxtaposition of Marx’s dialectical approach with that of Ricardo and Samuel Bailey (a critic of Ricardo and precursor of the Marginalist theory) regarding the nature of value. He accurately pinpoints Marx’s fundamental difference with both, namely his con-sideration of value as a social rather than a natural phenomenon. McNeill also juxtaposes Marx’s materialist dialectics with Hegel’s idealist dialectics. These two parts constitute the backbone of the book and offer original contributions to Marxist Political Economy.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44857979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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