PROKLA - Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialwissenschaft
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Wirtschaft, Wissenschaft und Politik: Die sozialwissenschaftliche Bedingtheit linker Reformpolitik
Get PDFLeonhard Dobusch, Jakob Kapeller: Economy, Economics and Politics: On the SocioscientificConditionality of Progressivism. Neoliberal hegemony in politics and neoclassicaldominance in economics are closely intertwined. For a comeback of reform-oriented progressivism,which is dependent upon reliable and pluralistic socio-scientific research, overcomingthis neoclassical dominance is a conditio sine qua non. Paradigmatic change in economics is,however, unlikely to happen even after neoclassical deficiencies have become obvious in thecourse of the financial crisis, due to several reciprocally enforcing institutional factors such ascareer opportunities, disciplinary discourse culture, and citation-based research evaluation.Based on this analysis, we sketch inner- and extradisciplinary avenues for (re-)pluralizingeconomics as a discipline
Corporate Social Responsibility – vom Reputationsmanagement zum politischen Projekt
Get PDFLuise Görges, Ulf Kadritzke: Corporate Social Responsibility – from Reputation Managementto the Strategic Advance of Corporate Power. This history of CSR exemplifies theadvancement of corporate power in the process of capitalist globalization. Initially started inresponse to reports on the violation of human rights, the transnational corporations (TNCs)managed to design the CSR concept as a voluntary and highly selective commitment to bridgethe gap between the rhetoric and the reality of corporate conduct. With the worldwide rise ofthe neoliberal paradigm in economic and social policy, these CSR-concepts were combinedinto a capital-dominated CSR-complex. The article tries to reconstruct the scientific, politicaland ideological roots of the concept and the steps transforming the corporate CSR-movementinto a successful ‘industry’. But the company-driven CSR is consistently confronted withactors and actions of a new social movement (including NGOs as well as unions). Theseorganizations of civil society steadily uncover the social consequences of corporate globalstrategies. The so far asymmetric balance of power may nevertheless give NGOs and theirallies– backed by the new media – a chance to lay open corporate misconduct and demonstratethe main ‘performance’ of global corporate power: the deepening of class polarization andecological instability
Deutscher Militarismus – eine unendliche Geschichte?
Get PDFAt the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, the Allied leaders identified four dimensions of German militarism that were of particular concern: the power of the military elite and their privileged position inside the state, the activities of paramilitary formations and the armaments industry, and the support for militarism in the public. The leaders agreed to a set of policies that sought to address these concerns of reigning in any militaristic tendencies. This article focuses on the relevance of these four areas of concern by examining their relevance in different periods, from the German Empire to the present, and trying to discern lines of continuity or of disruption. The impact of the armaments industry is as strong as ever, but the German army is now controlled by the parliament, soldiers have acquired certain rights and the general public seems not to be enthusiastic about the German participation in the Afghanistan war. Nevertheless, the involvement of the German troops in out of area-operations of NATO or the emerging European defence forces is on the increase
Warum die NATO den Krieg in Afghanistan nicht gewinnen wird
Get PDFBy widening noticeably their frame of activities NATO troops have been intervening in the internal conflicts of Afghanistan for a decade, following geopolitical and economic interests. They have met enormous obstacles through guerilla warfare and the loose tribal and administrative structures of the country. The Taliban operate with national and religious motives and can count on considerable support from the population. Since no side will presumably score a decisive victory, the probable solution will be a compromise allowing the coexistence of the insurgents with the Kabul-administration, as well as being compatible with the interests of the adjacent states
Die historische Dynamik des Kapitalismus und linke Strategien: Zu Alex Demirovi? Anmerkungen über den Gebrauchswert einer Kritik der Politik
Get PDFAs an answer to Alex Demirovic’s contribution this article argues that politics should rather be conceived as a social logic, an alienated form of rationality, which is necessarily bound to the overwhelming, historical dynamic of capitalism. This point also generates important implications for an analysis of the possibilities and constraints of a progressive practice, since it exceeds the traditional critique of class domination. Although there are (of course) crucial differences between different forms of the institutionalization of state power, and they do depend upon the balance of power in a society to a certain degree, even the most progressive form of political regulation is limited by the structural constraints of capitalist accumulation. Hence, the Left should search for alternative institutional forms and aim for a decomposition of the state rather than focusing too much on questions of an intrinsic political reform of capitalism
Die Linkspartei in der Krise
Get PDFAfter the fast ascent of the Linkspartei after the general elections 2005, there followed a period of stagnation that has continued until today. Since the general elections of 2009, die LINKE has been off the electoral winning track, internal conflicts over strategy and personnel characterize its image. However the party’s weakness in it’s „third phase“ cannot be explained mereley by self-preoccupation and soul-searching. The erosion of the traditional social-democratic milieu brings less grist to the mill of DIE LINKE than it did before. In east Germany the problems associated with an elderly constituency make themselves clearly felt. Moreover the party is faced with an altered discursive context (Fukushima, „enraged citizien“ – Wutbürger, economic crisis) and has to face up to the constellation in which the SPD and the Greens form the centre of force of a moderate opposition and the Piratenpartei succeeds with the promise of an alternative politics. The party‘s manifesto, which has been adopted at the end of October, admittedly proved the capacity of the competing currents within the party to compromise, but it is no answer to the questions of strategy and content the party will have to answer in the future, by itself
Gutes Leben und gute Arbeit weggespart: Wie die angebliche Tugend des Sparens für Umverteilung und Verschlechterung der Lebensbedingungen in Städten und Gemeinden instrumentalisiert wird
Get PDFIncreasing public debts during the crisis are now a justification for broad cuts in expenditure. However, in many countries public debt was critically debated before and irrespective of the crisis. Germany even discussed and in 2009 finally adopted a severe constitutional debt brake. The paper illustrates how a tax reduction policy of the German federal government drained public households and forced federal and regional authorities to cut public spending and benefits. The post-crisis cuts now are just an expression of an accelerated reduction of public welfare. Increasing public debt is only second best, the paper argues. The first choice to fight increasing debt would be a revised and just tax policy
Krieg gegen einen Integrationsunwilligen? Die politische Ökonomie des libyschen Bürgerkriegs und der westlichen Intervention im Kontext der Krise des globalen Kapitalismus
Get PDFThe article contextualizes the current NATO intervention into the Libyan civil war in the debates about the new imperialism and the crisis of global capitalism. It poses the question as to whether it can be interpreted as an act of militarily locking up an oil state which is immune to IMF/World Bank types of structural adjustment. Based on an analysis of the political economy of Libya from decolonization to the contemporary Gadhafi regime, it argues that the integration of Libya into the world order of global capitalism had already occurred as an act of free will. Therefore other reasons must have led to the hesitant decision to go to war. Denouncing the idea of humanitarian interventions, the article argues that in the context of the global crisis mainly three goals are being pursued: Guaranteeing the free flow of cheap oil; reestablishing control over a geopolitically essential region that as a result of the toppling of friendly dictators has been at the verge of slipping away; and reconstructing the indispensable ideology of „humanitarian interventions“ after their seeming demise in the quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan
Die militärpolitische Emanzipation Deutschlands – Afrika als Exerzierplatz?
Get PDFAfter World War II (West-)Germany was supposed to never again become a military Power. When it joined NATO all its troops had to be under the command of the alliance – but its contributions to NATO grew steadily. In the 2 + 4 treaty the united Germany pledged to never undertake any military aggression. With the Treaty of Masstricht the EU started to establish its own security policy. Germany’s active engagement in both alliances became its instrument for military emancipation. With growing military engagement of the EU (and Germany) -- especially in Africa -- as well as the predominant role of Germany in the EU and its engagement in the UN and NATO, the country is back on its way to becoming one of the big powers
Anarchismus-Agnolismus: Über die misslungene Inszenierung eines libertären Marx im „Marxismus-Agnolismus“
Get PDFPhilippe Kellerman: Anarchism-Agnolism. On the failed performance of a libertarianMarx in „Marxism-Agnolism“. It is shown that Johannes Agnoli, the famous libertarianMarxist, can only present his „Kritik der Politik“ as being related to Marx by suppressing orplaying down the historical dispute between Marx and the anarchist movement. Instead, wesee that in central parts of his theory Agnoli takes up those anarchistic positions that Marxvehemently fought against.Philippe Kellerman: Anarchism-Agnolism. On the failed performance of a libertarianMarx in „Marxism-Agnolism“. It is shown that Johannes Agnoli, the famous libertarianMarxist, can only present his „Kritik der Politik“ as being related to Marx by suppressing orplaying down the historical dispute between Marx and the anarchist movement. Instead, wesee that in central parts of his theory Agnoli takes up those anarchistic positions that Marxvehemently fought against