{"id":2237,"date":"2025-01-15T10:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T09:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/convivialthinking.org\/?p=2237"},"modified":"2025-01-09T11:04:24","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T10:04:24","slug":"taming-a-capitalist-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/convivialthinking.org\/index.php\/2025\/01\/15\/taming-a-capitalist-eu\/","title":{"rendered":"Taming a capitalist EU, socialist \u201adevelopment\u2018 and Post-Development"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Aram Ziai<\/em><\/p>\n

In their text, Tough questions for new EU \u201adevelopment\u2018 commissioner\u2018<\/a>,<\/strong> Sarah Delputte, Jan Orbie and Julia Sch\u00f6neberg are criticising EU development policy from a Post-Development perspective. Appreciating the renaming of the EU development commissioner as one responsible for international partnerships only as a first step in a long series of necessary changes, they suggest to ‘fundamentally reconsider the EU\u2018s engagement with the rest of the world\u2018. They criticise that Van der Leyen expects \u201avalue for money\u2018, wants to pursue ‘investment opportunities in Africa\u2018, and intends to leverage aid for private investment. And they castigate the focus on ‘countries of migration origin and transit\u2018 and the corresponding adaptation of funding as the ‘instrumentalisation of EU aid for geopolitical and migration management purposes\u2018. Instead, the EU should reflect its growth-centered model of ‘development\u2018 and tackle ‘global structural injustices and inequalities\u2018<\/strong> through abandoning the free trade orthodoxy of the EPAs and establishing a ‘truly fair\u2018 global trading system, ending tax evasion, promoting climate justice and engaging in reparative action for the crimes and robberies committed during colonialism.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

These are important and legitimate demands, absolutely. However, they implicitly seem to assume (strategically or not) a model of politics which I think is problematic. As Ferguson (1994) has argued in the epilogue of the Anti-Politics Machine<\/em>, the assumption of an all-powerful, benevolent actor is at best misleading. The demands seem to suggest that there could be a ‘good\u2018 EU which would establish a social and democratic global governance \u2013 if only we manage to convince the politicians. This neglects that the capitalist states which form the EU are not institutions to promote the global common good through politics of international ‘development\u2018 or partnership, or at least is based on the claim that they can be made to promote it given enough public pressure. But can they?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although there certainly are (limited) effects of progressive lobbying on EU institutions, I would like to advance three arguments that cast doubt on this assumption. First, the historical argument:<\/strong> If we look at the origin of ‘development\u2018 policy, we find that in Truman\u2018s announcement of his program for the ‘development\u2018 of ‘underdeveloped regions\u2018 in 1949, the geopolitical and economic motives are admitted, albeit in a subtle manner: global poverty was seen as a ‘handicap\u2018 and a ‘threat\u2018 for the USA. The threat refers to the geopolitical context of the Cold War and the fear that the countries of the South (some of them in the middle of decolonisation processes) would join the communist camp. The handicap referred to the expansion of the US economy into poorer areas hitherto controlled by European colonial powers which were seen as potential markets. The message of the new program addressed to leaders on the South was: you don\u2018t have to get rid of capitalism to get rid of poverty. That problem can be solved through investments, development projects and transfer ot technology. From its very beginning, the program of \u201adevelopment\u2018 in the South was designed to legitimate a capitalist world order through the promise of affluence and to replace the ideology of colonialism but still maintain access to the resources of the former colonies<\/strong> (Alcalde 1987: 223, Rahnema 1997: 379).<\/p>\n

Second, the theoretical argument<\/strong>: even if the capitalist constitution of states engaging in development policy should not be seen as determining all its practices, a serious analysis must not simply ignore this fact. If capitalist accumulation is the condition for the reproduction of a state based on enterprise and wage labour, then the policies of this state must somehow contribute to ensure this condition. Following the analysis of Schimank (1983: 60ff), the function of development policy in a capitalist state is to integrate ‘developing countries\u2018 into the world market, provide infrastructure for capitalist investments and ensure reproduction through measures of social policy.<\/strong> Probably Van der Leyen would subscribe to that, she would merely add that this would of course lead to poverty reduction, reiterating the central assumption of the ‘promise of development\u2018.<\/p>\n

Third, the empirical argument:<\/strong> Between 1998 and 2005, the leftist social democratic German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Wieczorek-Zeul tried to implement a coherent policy aiming at reforming global economic structures for the benefit of poorer countries<\/strong>, arguing that in a globalised world we have to combat crises in the South if we do not want to be affected by their repercussions in the form of terrorism or migration (thus employing a concept of \u201aenlightened self-interest\u2018). This global structural policy failed on most accounts, predominantly because the ministries for the economy and agriculture were far more convicing in arguing that the German interest would be served by pursuing policies in favour of German businesses and that this was the task of German politicians, thus they rejected the interference by leftist idealists<\/strong>. While the impetus of Wieczorek-Zeul was not too far from the alternative agenda outlined by Delputte, Orbie and Sch\u00f6neberg, its tangible results were very limited indeed (Ziai 2007).<\/p>\n

My argument is not that capitalist states cannot be pressured to engage in a more social and ecological policy. It is that the extent to which this is possible is severely limited and not remotely adequate for the changes that many of us deem urgently necessary for ethical reasons or reasons of planetary survival.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some critical minded readers might respond: ‘Ok, we get it, capitalism sucks. So let us try socialist development?\u2018<\/p>\n

A story I like to tell about capitalism<\/a> is that Bill Gates is so rich that he could afford to buy a new S-class Mercedes Benz<\/a> every month of his entire life \u2013 if he lives to see 150.000 years. All the while\u00a0 the WHO tells us that 5.4 mio. children under 5 die each year mostly of preventable causes, i.e. of poverty (Oxfam 2022: 13). Capitalism leads to absurd economic inequalities and simultaneously makes the survival of children dependent on sufficient incom<\/strong>e. And other people keep telling us that socialism has not worked and cannot work. Now it is true that the track record of socialist states is better in terms of social inequality and corporate influence, but in terms of the massive violence inflicted upon people (often in the name of \u201asocialist development\u2018), it is not <\/strong>(see Berger 1974 and as cases in point the displacements in the context of the Sardar Sarovar dam in India and he Three Gorges Dam in China, two countries seen as socialist at least by some at the time). Many Post-Development scholars followed Illich (1973) that industrial modernity was not a successful model to be emulated, and that the creation of convivial societies required progressive changes which go beyond that model<\/strong> as it was a threat to people\u2018s autonomy, capability and creativity. Some even questioned the entire philosophical underpinnings of Western modernity in the form of Cartesian rationality, a Baconian and patriarchal view on nature, and a Hobbesian image of human beings (the homo oeconomicus) (Nandy 1988, Apffel-Marglin\/Marglin 1990 and 1996, Mies\/Shiva 1993, Ziai 2004: 134-136).<\/p>\n

But even attempts to implement the good society rejecting capitalism and<\/em> industrial modernity have led to terrible violence<\/strong>, as can be witnessed in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. So where does this leave us? To my mind, it should be perfectly clear that an emancipatory position cannot consist of realising progressive blueprints through the state or in general from above.<\/strong> If \u201adevelopment\u2018 denotes a good society and if there are numerous views on how such a society should look like, every attempt to talk about a good society (or ‘development\u2018) in universal terms and in the singular remains problematic and contains an authoritarian element. The only solution I can see to this dilemma is grassroots democracy in a pluriverse (Kothari et al. 2019).<\/p>\n

In a world where many worlds fit, as the Zapatistas say, all communities can decide how they want to organise the economy, politics, etc. – provided they do not adopt an imperial mode of production and consumption which depends on the cheap labour and resources of other societies. So how can we prevent that? We certainly cannot trusts markets to do that and the arguments above provide grounds for skepticism that states can be counted on in this respect. Some scholars have \u2013 approvingly or disapprovingly \u2013 identified the anarchist implications of Post-Development (Nederveen Pieterse 2001: 105, Ziai 2015: 835) and Neusiedl (2021) made the point abundantly clear. If Post-Development articulates the will not to be governed in the name of ‘development\u2018 and invokes a right to resistance, this is directed against the very institution which assumes \u2013 in the South as well as in the North \u2013 to possess the legitimate right to act in pursuit of the common good: the state. So what is left if we do not trust the state (or the EU) to implement the good society? Nederveen Pieterse comments: ‘In the end postdevelopment offers no politics besides the self-organizing capacity of the poor<\/strong>\u2018 (2001: 110). But would that be so bad? Of course relations of power at the local level can be as bad as on the global level, but they are not as far-reaching and can be overcome more easily. Self-rule and democracy in the village republic<\/strong> (\u201aswaraj\u2018) is easier than on the planetary level.<\/p>\n

Yet there is another problem: can we trust civil society? Given the curent inequalities and hierarchies, chances are that many communities would willingly enter relations of neocolonialism supporting imperial modes of living. This is why these inequalities need to be undone<\/strong> \u2013 see the concept of ‘Undeveloping the North\u2018<\/a> \u2013 before free choice can lead to self-determination<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

All of the above does not intend to undermine the demands for a fair global trading system, climate justice, and so on. It merely wants to argue that even these demands \u2013 as radical as they may be in the context of EU development policy \u2013 are actually too modest from a Post-Development perspective. And if they serve as pragmatic first steps, we need to debate whether this is a viable strategy and identify actors and alliances possibly struggling for these demands. <\/strong>The EU commission seems an unrealistic candidate to me.<\/p>\n

About the author<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aram Ziai teaches at the University of Kassel, Germany. This text was originally written as a contribution to the EADI Conference 2021: Solidarity, Peace and Social Justice, Panel 2-SP098: Views on the EU as a Development Actor in Conversation with Postdevelopment, The author is grateful to the organisers of this panel.<\/p>\n

Literature<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alcalde, Javier Gonzalo 1987: The Idea of Third World Development. Emerging Perspectives in the United States and Britain, 1900-1950. Lanham: University Press of America.<\/p>\n

Apffel-Marglin, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique\/Marglin, Stephen (eds.) 1990: Dominating Knowledge: Development, Culture and Resistance. Oxford: Clarendon\/ United Nations University.<\/p>\n

Apffel-Marglin, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique\/Marglin, Stephen (Hg.) 1996: Decolonizing Knowledge. From Development to Dialogue. Oxford: Clarendon\/ United Nations University,<\/p>\n

Berger, Peter L. 1974: Pyramids of Sacrifice. Political Ethics and Social Change. New York: Basic Books.<\/p>\n

Ferguson, James 1994 (1990): The Anti-Politics Machine. \u201eDevelopment\u201c, Depoliticization and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.<\/p>\n

Illich, Ivan 1973: Tools for conviviality. New York: Harper and Row.<\/p>\n

Kothari, Ashish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta (eds.) 2019: Pluriverse. A Post-development Dictionary. Delhi: Authors UpFront.<\/p>\n

Rahnema, Majid 1997: \u201eTowards Post-Development: Searching for Signposts, a New Language and New Paradigms\u201c, in: Rahnema, Majid, with Victoria Bawtree, eds. 1997. The Post-Development Reader. London: Zed Books, 377-403.<\/p>\n

Mies, Maria\/Shiva, Vandana 1993: Ecofeminism. London: Zed Books.<\/p>\n

Nandy, Ashis (ed.) 1988: Science, Hegemony and Violence. A Requiem for Modernity. Tokyo: Oxford University Press\/United Nations University.<\/p>\n

Nederveen Pieterse, Jan 2001: Development Theory: Deconstructions\/Reconstructions. London: Sage.<\/p>\n

Neusiedl, Christoph 2021: Revolutions in Learning and Education from India. Pathways towards the Pluriverse. London: Routledge.<\/p>\n

Oxfam 2022: Inequality kills. Methodology note. Oxford: Oxfam.<\/p>\n

Rahnema, Majid 1997: \u201eTowards Post-Development: Searching for Signposts, a New Language and New Paradigms\u201c, in: Rahnema with Bawtree (eds.): The Post-Development Reader. London: Zed Books, 377-403.<\/p>\n

Schimank, Uwe 1983: \u201eDas au\u00dfenpolitische Interorganisationsnetz als Hemmnis einer eigenst\u00e4ndigen deutschen Entwicklungspolitik: Heteronomie und Autonomiebestrebungen des Bundesministeriums f\u00fcr wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit\u201c, in: Glagow, Manfred (Hg.) 1983a: Deutsche Entwicklungspolitik. Aspekte und Probleme ihrer Entscheidungsstruktur. Saarbr\u00fccken u.a.: Breitenbach, 51-86.<\/p>\n

WHO 2018: Children from the highest mortality countries are up to 60 times more likely to die in the first 5 years of life than those from the lowest mortality countries. https:\/\/www.who.int\/news\/item\/18-09-2018-a-child-under-15-dies-every-5-seconds-around-the-world-<\/p>\n

Ziai, Aram 2004: Entwicklung als Ideologie? Das klassische Entwicklungsparadigma und die Post-Deveolopment Kritik. Hamburg: Deutsches \u00dcbersee-Institut.<\/p>\n

Ziai, Aram 2007: Globale Strukturpolitik? Die Entwicklungspolitik der rot-gr\u00fcnen Bundesregierung und das Dispositiv der Entwicklung im Zeitalter von neoliberaler Globalisierung und neuer Weltordnung. M\u00fcnster: Westf\u00e4lisches Dampfboot.<\/p>\n

Ziai 2015: Post-Development: Premature Burials and Haunting Ghosts, in: Development and Change 46 (4): 833\u2013854.<\/p>\n

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