Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Sources Of Continued Corporate Dominance, Joshua Murray, Megan L. Jordan

Class, Race and Corporate Power

How do we make sense of the policy implications of the numerous corporate elites appointed to positions in government? The board interlock network served as a reliable map of power for most of the 20^th century. With the decline of the interlock network over the last few decades, we are left without a reliable map of corporate power, leading to a theory of a fractured corporate elite that is ineffectual in its collective policy influence.

In this article, we argue that the fractured elite thesis overlooks two factors that counteract the decline of the domestic interlock network- a stable …

It's Capitalism, Stupid!: The Theoretical And Political Limitations Of The Concept Of Neoliberalism, Bryant William Sculos

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This polemical essay explores the meaning and function of the concept of neoliberalism, focusing on the serious theoretical and political limitations of the concept. The crux of the argument is that, for those interested in overcoming the exploitative and oppressively destructive elements of global capitalism, opposing "neoliberalism" (even if best understood as a process or a spectrum of "neoliberalization" or simply privatization) is both insufficient and potentially self-undermining. This article also goes into some detail on the issues of health care and climate change in relation to "neoliberalism" (both conceptually and the material processes and policies that this term refers …

Corporations, Associations And The State: The International Subsidy System For Film, Michael S. Wartenbe

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Rather than increasing competition in the market and decreasing government spending, neoliberalism has driven states to compete by appealing to transnational corporations. Direct subsidization to attract investment has become one of the most egregious normalization of this process, and Hollywood and the film industry have become some of the most active participants to this system. Indeed to have a functioning film industry, government subsidies are essential, commonly paying out up to a third of the production costs. Per employee these are some of the highest subsidy rates of any industry, and with most of the world participating, they offer little …

Beyond A Mere Aesthetic Theory: A Review Of Michael Feola’S The Power Of Sensibility: Aesthetic Politics Through Adorno, Foucault, And Ranciѐre (2018), Maylin M. Hernandez

Class, Race and Corporate Power

A critical book review of Michael Feola's The Powers of Sensibility: Aesthetic Politics through Adorno, Foucault, and Ranciere

Ending The Illusion: Interrogating Neoliberalism And Class Action, Jahdiel Murray

Class, Race and Corporate Power

The neoliberal political economy is best framed and analyzed by identifying how it services the economic domination of the capitalist owners of production, the bourgeoisie. This work examines how the combination of expanded corporate power, the arrangements of national and international state apparatuses (roused by a reorientation of economic policy), and newly imposed limitations on collective action has helped to maintain the epoch of capitalism by stifling the development of a counter-hegemony that seeks emancipation. Within this analysis rests a critique. With the long-term effects of capitalist crises jeopardizing us once again, we have an opportunity to further the effort …

The End Of Humanitarian Intervention? A Debate At The Oxford Union With Historian David Gibbs And Michael Chertoff, David N. Gibbs

Class, Race and Corporate Power

The issue of humanitarian intervention has proven a vexing one of the political left during the post-Cold War era. In light mass violence in Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Darfur, Libya, and Syria, many leftists abandoned their traditional opposition to militarism and argued for robust military intervention by the United States and its allies to alleviate these crises. Critics argued in response that interventionism would end up worsening the very crises it was supposed to resolve. These issues were recently debated at the Oxford Union Society at Oxford University on March 4, 2019. The participants were Michael Chertoff -- former Secretary of …

In Defense Of Revolutionary Socialism: The Implications Of Bhaskar Sunkara’S "The Socialist Manifesto", Ronald W. Cox

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This review of Bhaskar Sunkara’s The Socialist Manifesto locates the book within socialist debates about revolutionary praxis and the limits of reform versus revolution. The reviewer argues that the book has been accused, both fairly and unfairly, as “socialism without revolution,” an argument that can only be understood by delving more deeply into the positions advocated by the author. While Sunkara does in fact advance a “revolutionary socialism” in terms of concrete policy proposals, it is fair to ask critical questions about whether or not his limited interrogation of capitalist power is compatible with his self-professed goals.

Politics Of Marx As Non-Sectarian Revolutionary Class Politics: An Interpretation In The Context Of The 20th And 21st Centuries, Raju Das

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This article is condensed from three chapters of my Marxist Class Theory for a Skeptical World (Haymarket, 2018) and from a longer article based on these chapters. It is based on a talk on Marx’s politics’ delivered at ‘A Bicentenary Conference: Karl Marx at 200’ at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario. Canada. I am thankful to the participants at this conference for their comments.

Put simply, Marx’s politics is about class struggle for state power to build socialism, a society of popular democracy, by overthrowing capitalism. In this short article, I will explore different aspects of this single idea, from …

Review Of Giridharadas, A. (2018). "Winners Take All: The Elite Charade Of Changing The World." New York: Alfred A Knopf., Joshua H. Martin, Kae Novak

Class, Race and Corporate Power

A review of Ananad Giridharadas' "Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World" (2018). New York: Alfred A Knopf.

Ultraconservatives In A Contentious Cusp Between Past And Future: A Review Of Dan Brown’S Novel "Origin", Lucas Miranda

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Taking Dan Brown’s latest novel Originas a thought-provoking heuristic device, this essay discusses the many facets of ultraconservatives’ anti-intellectualism (from their stances on evolution and climate change, and also their conspiracy theories). Brown’s novel particularly details the cultural tension between progressives and conservatives, depicting a very real far-right and how they respond to a hopeful and diverse youth (while exploring how political perception, fake news, and public information in the virtual era affect politics). The essay concludes that by raging war at science and deliberately making policies against progress, conservatives are at war against rationality itself, by defaming reason …

Sorry To Bother You With Twelve Theses On Boots Riley’S "Sorry To Bother You": Lessons For The Left, Bryant W. Sculos

Class, Race and Corporate Power

As one of the most overtly anticapitalist major motion pictures to be released in recent times (perhaps ever), Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You (2018) offers many crucial lessons for today’s Left. This essay provides short, open-ended discussions on twelve of those lessons.

A Letter To Steven Pinker (And Bill Gates, For That Matter) About Global Poverty, Jason Hickel

Class, Race and Corporate Power

A response to a letter regarding claims made in the Guardian about the global poverty narrative and printed with permission from Jason Hickel’s blog from Feb. 9, 2019.

The Crisis Of Capitalism Through Global Value Chains, Ronald W. Cox

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Reprinted from Chapter Five of Ronald W. Cox, Corporate Power, Class Conflict and the Crisis of the New Globalization, Lexington Book, 2019

Transnational corporate power within global value chains has been a byproduct of features that have long been inherent to global capitalism. The first is a built-in tendency of capitalism toward falling rates of profit that lead to structural crises within the system. The second is the increased concentration of capitalist ownership as a response to the falling rates of profit and the imperatives of capitalist accumulation. The third is an inherent tendency of capitalist owners of production …

Modern Monetary Theory: A Marxist Critique, Michael Roberts

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Compiled from a series of blog posts which can be found at "The Next Recession."

Modern monetary theory (MMT) has become flavor of the time among many leftist economic views in recent years. MMT has some traction in the left as it appears to offer theoretical support for policies of fiscal spending funded by central bank money and running up budget deficits and public debt without fear of crises – and thus backing policies of government spending on infrastructure projects, job creation and industry in direct contrast to neoliberal mainstream policies of austerity and minimal government intervention. Here …