Neoliberalism K—UMich 2013 neg 1NCs 1NC: Generic
Download 1.47 Mb.
|
1NC: Policy VersionAmerican economic engagement strategies are distinctly neoliberal and subscribe to exceptionalist theoriesGill, Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University, 95 (Stephen, “Globalisation, Market Civilisation, and Disciplinary Neoliberalism”, Millennium - Journal of International Studies 24:3, 1995, Sage Publications)//AS North American arrangements are more hierarchical and asymmetrical,understood both in inter-state terms and in terms of the class structures of eachnation. NAFTA is premised upon a low level of political institutionalisation anda hub-and-spoke configuration of power, with the United States at the centre ofa continentalised political economy. This is even more the case with theCaribbean Basin Initiative, which can be terminated unilaterally by the UnitedStates." The United States has negotiated the implicit right to monitor andcontrol large areas of Canadian political life in the US-Canada Free TradeAgreement. The US-Canada Agreement specifies that each side has to notify the other "˜party' by advanced warning, of intended federal or provincial government policy that might affect the other side's interests, as defined by the agreements Because of Canada's extensive economic integration with the United States, this situation necessarily affects the vast majority of Canadian economic activity, but not vice versa. Thus, Canadian governments no longer can contemplate an independent or interventionist economic strategy. In both NAFTA and the US-Canada Agreement there are no transnational citizenship rights other than those accorded to capital, and these are defined to favour US-registered companies. Finally, NAFTA can only be amended by agreement of all signatories. Whilst these arrangements place binding constraints on the policies of Canada and Mexico, to a certain degree, the United States retains constitutional autonomy and important prerogatives: its trade law is allowed to override treaty provisions, notwithstanding the rights of redress that are available to participants through the dispute settlement mechanisms." In other words, the US government is using access to its vast market as a lever of power, linked to a reshaping of the international business climate, by subjecting other nations to the disciplines of the new constitutionalism, whilst largely refusing to submit to them itself, partly for strategic reasons. Indeed, one of the arguments expressed by former European Union President Jacques Delors in favour of comprehensive West European economic and monetary union was strategic: to offset economic unilateralism from the United States, in matters of money and trade. Thus, an American-centred global neoliberalism _mandates a separation of politics and economics in ways that may narrow political representation and constrain democratic social choice in many parts of the world. New constitutionalism, which rarities this separation, may have become the de facto discourse of governance for most of the global political economy. This discourse involves a hierarchy of pressures and constraints on government autonomy that vary according to the size, economic strength, form of state and civil society, and prevailing national and regional institutional capabilities, as well as the degree of integration into global capital and money markets. Neoliberalism causes poverty, social exclusion, societal disintegration, violence and environmental destruction—threatens humanityDe La Barra, Chilean political activist, international consultant and former UNICEF Latin America Public Policy Advisor 07-- (Ximena, “THE DUAL DEBT OF NEOLIBERALISM”, Imperialism, Neoliberalism and Social Struggles in Latin America”, 9/1/09, edited by Dello Bueno and Lara, Brill Online)//AS The currently prevailing neoliberal development model has brought with it various technological advances and economic and commercial growth. However, these results ultimately benefit fewer and fewer people while augmenting social inequality, injustices, and promoting serious social and ethical setbacks. It is definitely not eradicating poverty On the contrary, it creates conditions for a growing tendency towards political,economic and social exclusion for the majority of the world’s population.The model exacerbates poverty, social disparities, ecological degradation,violence and social disintegration. Loss of governability flows from its systematic logic of emphasising an ever cheaper labour force, the reduction ofsocial benefits, the disarticulation and destruction of labourorganisations,and the elimination of labour and ecological regulation (de la Barra 1997). Inthis way, it consolidates a kind of cannibalism known as social dumping thatseeks to lower costs below the value of social reproduction rather than organising a process of progressive social accumulation. For most of Latin Americaand the Caribbean, the present minimum wage levels only allow for a portionof the basic consumption package needed by working people (Bossio 2002).At present, the global income gap between the 10% poorest portion of theworld’s population and the wealthiest 10% has grown to be 1 to 103 (UNDP2005). According to this same source, around 2.5 billion people, almost halfof humanity, lives on less than US$ 2. per day (considered the poverty level),while 1.2 billion of these people live on less than US$ 1. per day (consideredthe level of extreme poverty).Given its neoliberal character, globalisation failed to produce the benefitsthat were touted. Indeed, the process has greatly harmed the most vulnerable social sectors produced by the previous phase of capitalist development.The lack of social and ethical objectives in the current globalisation processhas resulted in benefits only in those countries where a robust physical andhuman infrastructure exists, where redistributive social policies are the norm,and where fair access to markets and strong regulatory entities are in place.Where such conditions do not exist, globalisation has led to stagnation andmarginalisation, with declining health and educational levels of its children,especially among the poor. Some regions, including Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Sub-Saharan Africa, and more recently, Latin America andthe Caribbean, as well as some countries within regions and some personswithin countries (poor children and adolescents, rural inhabitants and urbanslum dwellers, indigenous peoples, children of illiterate women, illegal immigrants, etc.) have remained mostly excluded (UNICEF 2001). Unique moment for rejection of capitalism—only a total rejection will sufficeResnick and Wolff, professors of economics at Amherst and Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University (Wolff) 03 (Stephen and Richard, “Exploitation, Consumption, and the Uniqueness of US Capitalism”, Historical Materialism 11:4, Brill)//AS The toll taken on workers' lives has been profound, and never more than at present. Stressed and collapsed household class structures, severe psychological and physical strains, civic isolation and personal loneliness, violence and despair are US capitalism's weaknesses and failures just as surely as rising rates of exploitation and real wages are its successes. 'I`heopportunities for a socialist critique to be embraced are therefore abundant in the US. Responding to those opportunities will require a shift away from defining class in terms of wealth and property and away from programmes focused too narrowly on raising real wages. That plays to US capitalism's strength and not its weaknesses. Of course, low wages, poor working conditions, and job insecurities will remain targets of socialist critique, but eradicating them will be only part of a renewed socialism. Much the greater part will connect the dominant organisation of the surplus - capitalist exploitation - to the host of profound problems and sufferings now experienced by the mass of US citizens. Such a socialism would make the end of exploitation an indispensable component of its programme and vision. To paraphrase the old man once more: not higher wages but the abolition of the wage system is the point. To demand less for the victims of capitalist exploitation would be the equivalent of demanding better rations for the slaves rather than the abolition of slavery. Download 1.47 Mb. Share with your friends:
|