Alain Lipietz Mirages and Miracles Crisis in Global Fordism

8/20/2019 Alain Lipietz Mirages and Miracles Crisis in Global Fordism

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Li pietz, AlaiMirages ad Miracles the Crises of Global

Fordism1 Ecoomic histry 197 1 - Title Mirages et miracles. Engsh3309048 HC59

First Published 1987© Alai Lipietz 1 987

Vrso

15 Greek Street, Lodo WV 5LF

Typst i pt Garamod Book byLeaper & Gard Ltd Bristol, Eglad

Prited by The Thetford PrssThetford, Norfolk

ISBN 086091-152-7ISBN 086091-865-3 Pbk


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Contents

Intrductn

.

2

4

5

6

uetn f Methd

The Frtune and Mfrtune f the entralRegme f Accumulatn Frdm

The ld vn f abur r hat daptalm ant wth the erphery

Tward Glbal Frdm

erpheral Frdm n uthern Eurpe

Frm the nguratn f ucce t ren erpheral Frdm

nclun

Nte

o

2

47

6


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Tabls and Gras

able 1 Fregn Trade and rductn 57

Graph 1 uth Krea tn f Fve Grupf Indutre 1970-79 82

able 2: hange n rld rductn 1960-81 85

able 3 : hagng ructn rtugal Greecepan 1 2 1

Table 4 : hangng Gegraphcal tructure fExprt 124

Table 5 : ndtn f Grwth 1963-80 126

Table 6: vn f Relatve urplualue 127

Graph 2: er apta evel f rductvty nManufacturng ndutry 1950-81 138

Table 7 : er apta evel f rductvty n

Manufacturng Branche 1980 139

able 8 Nnl evelpng untreEbb and Flw f ngTerm ebt 154


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Graph 3 Indutral utput nce 1974

agam 1 : The Fnancal trangulatn f erpheral

158

Frdm 162

Table 9 Relatve Trend n Interet, ebt andExprt f NnE, NnEevelpng untre 164


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Translors o

Earler vern f ectn f th bk have preulyappeared n Englh tranlatn a Tward Glbal Frdm'and Marx f Rtw N Le Review 132 MarchAprl

1982 Imperalm r The Beat f the Apcalype, Capitaland Class 22 prng 1984 w Mnetarm hked Thrdrld Indutralzatn N Le Review 145, Mayune1984 Extng tranlatn have been mded.

avd Macey


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Inoducon

'n science it is selfevident that concepts are going tochange; that is to say that, you hope to learn somethingThis is not theology, aer all You do not make declar

ations which you must preserve unchanged for the rest ofyour life y contrast, in the social sciences or i humanistic sudies, positions are oen personalized Once youhave taken a position, you are supposed to defend it, nomatter what happens t becomes a uestion of honour notto change or revise an opinion (that is, to learn somethng) nstead you are accused of reting yourself if youmodi your position]

h a tme fr dubt and fr quetn, a tme whenchema fall apart and when every aptay can be jutfed.New ndutral pwer re up frm the depth f extremepverty. In the hrd rld calm ravaged by war andfamne. Guerrlla becme mnter and run cuntre thatwere mdernzed by gllas. eper and agelladoscurged ne' beg n the ptle tep f the bank.

he wh nc practced elfrelance are penng therdr t trannatnal cmpane. Interet rate prvkehunger rt. Everythng ha becme cnfed he enemyha becme an abtractn. h a tme fr cure t belfted and fr mracle t turn ur.

And yet, twenty year ag, everythng eemed clearcut,even f nt every judge handed dwn the ame verdct. henternatnal dvn f labur dvded the ndutralzednatn frm the ret f the wrld. he ndutralzed cuntre exprted manufactured gd the underdevelpedcuntre exprted mneral r agrcultural raw materal, rmgrant labur Accrdng t the dmnant lberal vew fecnmc, t wa all a matter f tage f ecmcgrwth the underdevelped cuntre were mply


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behnd the ndutralzed cuntre n the ame way thatchldren are behnd adult. It wuld nt be lng befretey reached adlecence take, the ndutral age andthen the ptndutral age, wth ntegratn nt thewrld market peedng up the prce.

In cntrat, the heterdx current the Marxt, thedependency thert and the thrd wrldt 3 arguedthat t wa precely the relatn between the centre andthe perphery r, t ue anther mage, between Nrthand uth whch precluded even the pblty fnrmal captalt develpment n the uth. The depend

ency argument went rughly a fllw. The Nrth neededthe uth that t culd exprt t urplu. Mrever, mtf the wealth prduced n the prmary ectr n the uthwa tranferred t the Nrth va a prce f unequalexchange. The ndutral emancpatn f the uth wuldtherefre be a frm f aggren agant the Nrth, whch,n turn, had the mltary capacty t enure that t wuldnever take place.

Th the and we wll ee later t what extent t wacrrect had ne great advantage ver the lberal argument. It cncene upn tudyng the lnk tbundecnm nteatratn d t thewrld cny a a ytem. t weakne wa that t adlttle attentn t the cncrete cndt f ltaccumulatn ether n the centre r n the perphe. Ittherere cul nt vualze that tranfrmatn n the

_ _ -- _ ¥ _, -" -'-. �7_ -

c t e wul he nateY centepherrtn. r culd t e, equence, that tranfrmatn n the ba f that lgc wthnthe perpheral cuntre wuld lead t nthng le than thefragmentatn f the Thrd rld nt a ere f dtnctdevelpmental ter

The upprter f the dgma f the nevtable develpent f underdevelpment were therefre caught

balance when, n the evente, real captalt ndutralzatn began n certan perpheral cuntre and when,durng the ame perd, there wa a marked dwnturn nthe Nrth hen th happened, me Marxt ralled bdyand ul t Rtw argument, and even went far a tng the prae f mperalm, pneer f captalm


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ntroduction

becaue t prmted the develpment f the prductvefrce and the unfcatn f manknd.

ther, lke allx and Frank, mply dened tat anythng new wa happenng. Frank repnded t grwh n theNewly Indutralzng untre (NICS by reaertngdgma A the analy f mperalm, dependence and thewrld ytem ha emphazed, the very grwt pattern f theleader ha been baed upn, ndeed ha generaed, thenablty f the ret f the wrld t fllw. The underlyngrean that th develpment r acent ha been mperceved a takng place n partcular cuntre, wherea t

ha really been ne f the prcee f the wrld ytemte. The recent exprtled grwth f the NICS al partand parcel f captal accumulatn n a wrld cale.Accrdng t Frank, the emergence f the NICS mply mentthat emgrant wrker were nw beng emplyed n therwn cuntre. It dd nt alter the wrkng f the wrldecnmy. ncrete realty the cla truggle, claallance, and the pecc dynamc f derent cal fr

matn wa explctly gnred.epte the undenable frmal uperrty f theperalmdependency apprach, t eem that, lke therval lberal apprach the tage f develpment, t haddegenerated nt an ahtrcal dgmatm by the end f thexte. It a thugh tw thert were cntemplatng thedevelpment f htry, each f them wearng a watch thathad tpped. the uth wa tagnatng, ne thert culd

tell yu precely what tme t wa f new ndutralzatnwa takng place, anther wuld ay t wa tme fr take. the NICS were n cr, the ther wuld reply, I tld yu.

In rder t get beynd th talemate, we bvuly havet take nt accunt the htrcal and natnal dverty fcaptal accumulatn n each f the natntate under cnderatn, begnnng wth the cuntre f the centre, butnt frgettng the f the called perphery.

My ambtn here nt, hwever, t utlne The rrectThery f tendence at wrk wthn the nternatnadvn f labur, frm the rgn f mperalm untl thepreent cr. n the cntrary, I wuld lke frt f all t putfrward a few mdet methdlgcal pnt and t warn


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4

agant the mue f certan term and cncept that we allue all meanng, f cure, the wmen and men whrefer t arxt ther, r, mre generall t anale ungthe cncept f dependenc and dmnatn. Ther mueexplan the talemate t me extnt

All t fen, we reacted agant the ptmm r cncm f lberal thught and n dubt we wll g n dng b preentng cncrete htr a the nevtable unfldng f a cncept uch a mperalm thu ndulgng n whatBurdeu call pemtc fnctnalm8 b argung thatthe wrld a t becaue t wa degned t erve the

nteret f the pwerfl r the nteret f the tem. Thever tn f an nternatnal dvn f labur nt tmentn an nternatnal Ecnmc rder ugget thatthere me reat Engneer r upreme Entrepreneur whrganze labur n term f a precnceved wrld plan.ependng n ne tate and tle, th watchmakeractvt the utcme f the ert f readl dentfableubect uch a ultnatnal mpane r the Trlateral

mmn, r the expren f the manent need f anectplam whch a prtean a t achavellan rldaptalm, the rld Ecnm . . . .

uch tendence can nl lead, agan dependng upn netle r upn the wa experence aect ne pernalt,t ether a banal pemm f the ntellect e cant danthng abut t the tem agant u r a new pumf the peple t wll n cllape under the weght f t

wn cntradctn. And we den the lvng ul arxm and the ba fr ptmm f the wll the cncreteanal f cncrete tuatn.

hen reearcher, r wre mtant, adpt uch atttude, the abdcate ther ntellectual repnblte. Everapect f a real cal frmatn een a reultng frm theevl f dependenc. Ever cncrete tuatn frced ntthe rcrutean bed f a chema etablhed b me reatAuthr f the pat, whle anthng that wnt t mpllpped .

n the fllwng page wll attempt t preent,uccnctl and n chematc frm, the reult f m wrk nhw the preent cr tranfrmng the nternatnaldvn f labur. wll nt venture far a t make a cn

\

�[


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ntroduction

crete analy f he ne hundred and fty cuntre thatmake up the wrld r f ther rreducble pecfcte. leave that tak t mre cmpetent pecalt. The called

calt cuntre have mply been mtted frm thtudy n nternatnal relatn. Ther wrkng are pecfc a t requre a eparate tudy Bede, t happen that, frm a trctly ecnmc pnt f vew, theyplayed a farly mnr and even a dmnhng rle n thetranfrmatn that ccurred n the perphery n te 196084 perd The nly calt cuntre that wll be dcuedhere are the, whch, lke land r Yuglava, are

artculated wth the develped captalm f the et n amlar way t the NCS.And, naturally enugh, wll cat cautn t the wnd.

wll talk abut ld and new dvn f labur the centre,the perphery, Frdm, bldy Taylrm, perpheralFrdm and ther bld cnceptualzatn. hpe t hwthat thee cntruct can n me ene help u t undertand the real wrld, whle rememberng that n ther

repect r level f abtractn they are ft fr the re. Acharacter wh wll have a certan rle t play later put tvery clearly The rder that ur mnd magne lke a net,r lke a ladder, bult t attan methng. But aferward yumut thrw the ladder away, becaue yu dcver that, evenf t wa uel, t wa meanngle . . . . The nly truth thatare uefl are ntrument t be thrwn away.

The reader ha been warned. he wuld d better t burnth bk wthut readng t, f all he gng t get ut ft a new cllectn f label t tck n real natn andactual extng nternatnal relatn wthut frt analyngthem careflly. peflly the frt chapter wll be an antdte t that.

The ecnd chapter wll revew the methdlgcalcntrbutn made by recent wrk n regme f accumulatn and mde f regulatn. Th wrk help u t grapthe varu lutn whch captalm ha fund fr tnternal cntradctn durng the cure f t htry themt recent beng Fdm, the dmnant frm f the ptwar perd t nly n th ba, whch take u beyndnatnal dverte, that we can begn t dent, albet ntentatve frm gven the current tate f reearch, the lgc


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gvernng change n relatn between the central ecnme themelve, and relatn between the ecnmeand what, n a bw t a cnceptualzatn whch mut be

verturned, I wll cntnue t decrbe a the erphery'.The thrd hapter reexamne the htrcal develpmentf centreperphery relatn n th lght lacal theref mperalm and dependency wll be hwn t be mleadng n that they gve a tmele pcture f a cnfguratnwhch n fact belng t a vanhed perd n the htry fcentral captalm, namely the perd f extenve accumulatn and cmpettve regulatn.

The furth chapter brng u t the heart f ur ubjectthe emenon f the parta nutralzatn f theThrd rld, whch wll be he te rult fthevari

ini eent h g rvebeen exed t the erhery. In the ffth chapter, thee men wll be related t pltcal event n uthernEurpe durng the evente and t what Nc ulantzaha termed the cr f the dctatrhp nally, we wll

ee n hapter x hw the cr n central rdm cmbned wth nternal factr t detry many f the mraclef the evente

e wll end by lkng at what mght be meant by atruggle agant a wrld rder whch n fact a mntrudrder, even f t le rgd than t mght nce haveeemed r th bk wuld never have been wrtten weret nt fr the utburt f ndgnatn whch n the xte ledthe yung peple f the et t hare the hpe f thefghtng n the Thr rld agant a ytem whch enrcheda mnrty whle allwng the majrty t nk nt unremttng pverty. Even f e d nw knw that the relatnhpbetween wealth an pverty nt a mechancal a we ncethught; even the wrkng f the ytem d nt meanthat ppreed peple are rredeemably damned; and even the mt uccel rad t develpment are nt the newe wanted t ee; the fact reman that even when grwth acheved t by brutal methd that, all t en, dnthng t alter the gr nequalte whch make t mpble t peak eruly f the unty f the human race' Interm f demcracy the truggle ha carcely begun

Th bk therefre dedcated t my cmrade, t my


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ntroduction

frend, and t the wmen and men wh cntne t fghtfr a mre jut wrld rder; epecally t the n the Thrdrld wh taught me methng abut ther cuntre, ther

prblem, and ther hpe.


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Quesons of Meod

I wuld lke then t begn wth a warnng agant twcmmn errr The rt cnt f deducng cncreterealty frm mmanent law whch are themelve deduced

frm a uneral cncept Imperalm ependency Theecnd mply the ther de f the ame cn analyngevery cncrete develpment n term f the need f thead cncept r t be mre pecfc analyng the nternalevlutn f natnal cecnmc frmatn a thughthey were merely part f a mucal cre cnducted by awrld aetr even f we d admt that the maetr nthmelf a bad ubject.

Imperialism, or he Beast of the Apocalpse

A few year ag mbert Ec an Italan ntellectual whha een t all befre but wh nt ttally dllunepublhed a remarkable detectve nvel enttled The Naeo/the Rose. It tell hw llam de Bakerlle a Franccan

herlck lme lve a myteru ere f murder thattake place n a medeval abbey. The murder eem t fllwn frm ne anther lke the cure f the Apcalype Bypurung th lne f nvetgatn llam dcver bththe murderer and the mtve and realze that there apecfc rean fr each murder. Each ha t mmedate

9


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caue, and they have nthng t d wth the ApcaypeBut and th the fna twt the murderer hmef cnvnced that he actng ut the cenar f the Apcaype.At eat ne f the murder wa taged accrdngy. In thefna anay, he dd pay the re f the Antchrt n avery pecfc ene.

am wh f cure prmary a muthpece fram f ckham, the great Engh Franccan phpher f the Mdde Age, and ne f the funder fmdern ratnam, but wh a, n turn, a muthpecefr .. erce, the Amercan wh funded emtc cncude that genera aw are f weak hep when t cme tanayng the cmpexty f partcuar event.

It a very gd nve, and a very ntructve ne. B£ ceptuazng, generazng and turnng ur thught nt

da, we nvented ur wn Bea f A and then tred t deduce ture devepment n cncretehtr frm ther charactertc. In the xte, we arguedtt t mutae aw pram taby

den th guf between natn and that te wudad t a party between weath and pverty. And thenededuced an nevtabe equence f tage f devepmentand underdevepment. e frecat the mpbty fndutra devepment n the dmnated cuntre. Yetwhat dd we have t ay when, n the evente, Brtandecne acceerated, the USA wed dwn, and the NewyIndutrazng untre tarted t take n mperam

backyardme f u mmedatey began t retherze everythng

and went back t ther vere frm the Apcaype thatprphezed a derent but equay neceary ture. Barren dug ut Marx' d text n hw the Indan rawaywud brng captat reatn n ther wake jut a urelya the prductve frce were gn t revutnze thereat f prductn That, hwever, wa ne f the great

prphet mre memrabe hwer ther, meanwhe, began t recnceptuaze htry;frecatng that the entre f the rd Ecnmy wa gngt hft t a vague but watery pnt mewhere beteenTky and Angee, and that a new nternatna dvnf abur wa gng t emerge fy armed frm me


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Questions of Method

bcure upheava n rd apta. Ad when n the 0the NICS began t be ht by the cr, yet ther wh hadbeeved a ang n the d dvn f abur med

knwngy and ad, e td yu . Neede t ay, I ddnt avd thee trap ether, and metme fe nt a threeat nce.

The truth f the matter that, a enn ued t ay,htry ha nfntey mre magnatn than we have. I meanby th the htry f the human race, f an bjectve ubject whch make t wn htry. It nt a ubject wth aprject, but a vat bdy made f up mn f ubject

truggng agant ne anther. It htry the htry fther vctre and defeat.Marx, nt t mentn Ma Zedng, a warn u n very

nmnat term agant the temptatn t beeve n theream f cncept, agant the dea that a we have t dn rder t undertand the artcuar t grap the nvera. The nvera n mre than an nteectua ytematzatn f ur practca experence f the rea, and t

take n accunt f the cncrete nature f the rea. Accrdng t Marx, cncept thu rk becmng fethe In thelanguage of speculative philosophy . . . I decarng thatFrut the ubtance f the pear, the appe, the amnd,etc . . . . I therefre decare appe, pear, amnd, et. t bemere frm f extence, odi" f Fruit" . . . . It a hardt prduce rea frut frm the abtract dea the frut a t eay t prduce th abtract dea frm rea frut.

e make the ame pnt n the frt vern f the Frtchapter f Capital: 'I I ay that Rman aw and German aware bth aw, I make myef undertd. But I ay thataw, that abtract thng, reazed n bth Rman andGerman aw, that n cncrete aw, the cnnectnbetween the tw becme mytca. Th methdgcawarnng nt wthut t ptca mpcatn; t urcapacty t anaye htry that at take. In h crtque fMkhavky, Marx cmpare the pretaranzatn f thepeaantry n Rua and n the Rman Empre trkngyanagu event whc ccur n derent htrca cntext can ead t very dparate reut. we tudy each fthee devepment n t wn rght and then cmpare them,we can eay fnd a key t undertandng the phenmena,


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but we wll never undertand them b ung the pa ke fa htrcphlphcal ther whe man vrtue that t uprahtrca And a Engel argue n a letter t

chmdt f we alwa defne mammal' a anmal whchgve brth t lvng ung we eventuall have t beg theduckbll' pardn. w much lnger d we have t g nbeggng the pr thng' pardn

e 'Habits of Histo

e th mean that n ratnal knwledge pble n theface f the freedm f htr Are there n unveral lawn necet and therefre n cence n generalte andn cncept r a Ad wh pla r atn t llam'lme a 'I all law lmt Gd' freedm can ne cnceve f necear beng whch ttall plluted wth thepble' llam I mean the real llam f ckhamwuld a Ye'. Becaue n the ne hand Gd n h free

dm ubject t the prncple f nncntradctn; therefre nt everthng ma happen. An becaue n the therhand the pwer f Gd materalzed n creatnwhch reed bjectfed and therefre gverned bdentfable regularte. It a cndtned ptentalt cndtned b the habt f nature a t ha been created.

n't wrr; I am nt gng t gve a lecture n thelg.But pnza dd a Gd r nature f u prefer' thereb

makng a dtnctn betweennatura naturans

andnatura

naturata And Marx wh knew f nl ne cence thatf ht made t qute clear that men make ther wnhtr but n the ba f cndtn nherted frm hepat.

we clng rml t dalectcal materalm there then acentc prject fr undertandng htr. It mple thetud f the regularities whch pat truggle have mpedupn human relatn; 2 the tud f the crises whch arewthn the regularte becaue cntradctn are nlprvnall relved; and 3 the tud f the changeswthn the regulate that reult frm humant' ngng truggle fr r agant freedm

In ther wrd the cncept we ue d nt drp frm the

C


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Questions of Method

ke. Rather the cme frm the partal tematzatn f arealt whch te nl partall a tem. The then helpu t recgnze n ther tuatn the general feature theelucdate Ether e prve t be pertnent and can help tlberate peple wh are ppreed b the habt f ht.r the prve t be neectve and have t be mdfed r fnecear dcarded. It al fllw that a number f dfferent partal tematzatn r cncept n help t hedlght n the ame bject. Nether ectaranm cnceptfethm nr bkfethm whch even wre areadmble n cncrete anal

It f cure n tudng the tem f the wrld ecnm that we have t be mt carefl; harleAlbertMchalet qute rght t tre that the tem tef nmre than a prce f partal ttalzatn. Ecnmttud nl certan apect f t even thugh we d atterurelve nt belevng wth me rean that theapect are determnat n the lat ntance.

I wuld tre that ur Mater were nt unaware f the

need fr catn. I have quted Marx and enn; nw let mequte ard and Falett the Father f dependencther he cncept f dependence tre t gve a meanngt a ere f event and tuatn that ccur tgether andt make emprcal tuatn undertandable n term f thewa nternal and external tructural cmpnent ae lnked

nfrtunatel t ha t be admtted that the cncept fependenc lke the cncept f Mde f rductn and

Imperalm n take n a lfe f t wn. T ften theecncept plunge u nt tem whch are nt ntellectalervant whch help u t undertand the real but matewhch bcure the real t pecfcte t derence andt tranfrmatn. Th wh fndamentalm mut neverprevent u frm enrchng ur cncept epecall b ungther cncept whch are capable f grapng jut what t abut the real that make t table enugh t be amenable tcnceptualzatn Th the nl wa t cme t termwth t evlutn and t pecfcte.

Take the cae f the capitalist ode of production. Th alread a rch cncept n that t dentfe the tablzatnf a certan tem f human relatn n certan cuntre ata certan tme. e knw t tendence and cunter


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4

tendence the frmer frm beratn and the latter bydeductn.

ne f the great cntradctn f th mde f pr

ductn relate t t cmmdty' de Althugh captaltcan rganze prductn n ther factre dwn t the latdetal and can gven ther habt and ther calculatetablh there an rn law f prnalty' n therdealng wth the ret f cety they behave lke any thergambler ther prduct may r may nt fnd a buyer at aprce whch make prductn prftable th the famurealzatn prblem' Yet t wrk . except f cure

when there a cr. In rder t undertand hw t wrkwe have t prduce new cncept. A number f Frenchreearch wrker have prped the cncept f regie ofaccuulation and ode of regulation.]] I wll decrbethee cncept n detal later but we mut frt ay a wrd at ther methdlgcal tatu

A regie of accuulation decrbe the farly lngtermtablzatn f the allcatn f cal prductn between

cnumptn and accumulatn Th mple a certan crrepndence between the tranfrmatn f the cndtn fprductn and the tranfrmatn f the cndtn f thereprductn f wagelabur between certan f themdalte n whch captalm artculated wth thermde f prductn wthn a national econoic andsocial fration, and between the cal and ecnmc frmatn under cnderatn and t utde wrld'.

In mathematcal term ame

f

can bedecrbed a a So Regme f accumulatn e becaue ther ca f reprductn eab; therefre nt all regme f accumuln arepble. There f cure n rean why all ndvdualcaptal huld cme peacefully tgether wthn a cherentchema f reprductn The regme f accumulatn muttherefre be materalzed n the hape f nr habtan regulatngenur

the f th

ce and whch guarante that t agent cnfrm mr rle ·t.h sma of reproduction Jhe ir.d a :U behavur and truggle bth the ecnmc trugglebetwe captalt and wageearner and that betweencaptal .


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Questions of Method

The et f nternalzed rule and sociaroedshincopoat n n dvdual behavur andne mght be able t mblze Burdeu' cncept f habtuhere referred t a a ode of regulation. Thu the dmnant regme f accuulatn n he OEeD cuntredurng pta erd an ntenve regme centredupn ma cnumptn h a very derent mde f reglatn t that peratng nry captalm Ina geture f hmage t Gramc we nw refer t t aFordis

It huld be nted that nt every mde f regulatn can

regulate every regme f accumulatn and that a nglemde can take the hape f derent cmbnatn f partialfors of regulation. Indrect wage d nt fr ntancehave the ame mprtance n the USA and n nrthernEurpe

The mprtant pnt hwever that the emergence f anew regme f accumulatn nt a prerdaned part fcaptalm' detny even thugh t may crrepnd t cer

tan dentable tendence'. Nr the tablzatn f amde f regulatn an expren f the need f a regme faccumulatn whch emerge frm lat' cave and dctatet law t u a thugh we were mere hade. Regme faccumulatn and mde f regulatn are overies made the cf human tuead he arer a whle uccel t nly becue theebl tenure a certan regularty and a ceran peranenn

cal reprductn. But jut a nature ll f ddte lkeduckbll and tucan whch urve n cattered clnebeteen the dcntnuu equlbra' that punctuate theevlutn f pece the htry f captalm ll fexperment whch led nwhere abrted revlutnabandned prttype and all rt f mntrte. It pntle t attempt t ft all cal fmatn nt theramewrk f a regme f accumulatn adapted t a del

tuatn uch a Frdm. It nt mply that they d ntnecearly all cnrm t that regme f accumulatn; tmay be that they cnr t no tablzed regme f accumulatn. In ther wrd they may mply be n a tate fcr.


24/235

Pesssc Funconasm

The abve cmment n the carcty f exampe f ucce

captam n the cae f the cntradctn t ha treve f t t get under way and g n reprducng tef;n the need t fnd a utabe regme f accumuatn andt et up a utabe mde f reguatn and n the fact thatthe extence f cncrete captam mre mprbabethan neceary hud nt be taken a meanng, a contrario, that f t wrk, t becaue t ha been degned twrk , that the fnctn f a mde f reguatn t make

a regme f accumuatn wrk, that the efare tate wanvented n rder t make ma prductn g n mthy,etc.

It mpy that a gven regme f accuuatn and certan frm f reguatn tabzed at the ame tme becauethey awed ca reatn t be reprduced fr a certanength f tme wthut a cr arng. At bet, we can adptan a posteriori r amt metaphrc nctnam It a

thugh It a thugh the underdevepment f theperphery heped captam t wrk n the centre hchbrng me t my ecnd warnng

It prbaby n there f nternatna reatn that thetendency t ape nt nctnam r even fnam, whchare bth the utcme f a beef n ytem, mt bvu,and that t nct mt damage Rcard and the upprter f the eckcherhnamuen therem eem,

fr ntance, t beeve that the nternatna dvn fabur the reut f me wrd cnference at whchbrant ecnmt expaned t an admrng gaery f ptcan that gven reatve eve f prductvty, cectvepreference and the nta endwment f factr the freepay f market frce wud enure th ptma dvn fprductn, and that each partcpant then went hme cvnced nt ny f the vrtue f free trade but that the awf cmparatve ct enured that the t that had faen th r her cuntry wa qute jutfed, and that they cudtherefre frce t t adpt the requte pecazatn

The great achevement f the theretcan f Imperamand ependency t have wept ade thee apgetcfabe and t have hwn that the undenabe emprca df


25/235

Questions of Method 7

ference that ext between ecnmc pace are derencen weath and pwer, and that the wh fund that thtate f aar wrked t ther advantage were mre key trey upn the nvbe handhake f crruptn r theemnenty audbe bt f the mtary t etabh r mantan t, than upn the nvbe hand f the market.

Gng back t the tradtn f Adam mth rather thanthat f Rcard, the Marxt and then the ependencythert demntrated qute crrecty that the extence fthe uneven nternatna devepment f captam and thetabzatn f a certan tructure f trade dd ead t a

mre rapd accumuatn f capta n the centre becauethe cntradctn f the captat mde f prductn weereved n captam favur n the cuntre It athugh a regme f accumuatn exted n a wrd cae,wth the centreperphery parzatn actng a a reguatr.They then baptzed th tate f aar, r the tendency tmpe and reprduce nternatna reatn whch n neway r anther favured the accumuatn f capta n the

mre deveped cuntre, Iperialis And they baptzedthe crrepndng tate f aar r tendence n cuntrewth a e deveped captam, Dependency.

Insoars ey are tate f ieisndD

�

9

:

e can f cure ca a realtywatever we w t ca t But th ny ne tep awayfrm ayng that the regme wa mped and I tre thempernaty f the grammatca frm n the dmnated

cuntre becaue certan zne had t perfrm thefunction f revng captam cntradctn r, wret, that mene mped the reatn f dmnatnin order to reve t cntradctn A t whether nebeeve n fnam r n fnctnam, that t a quetnf tye ne can ether take the vew that me cncuubject frced the perphery t ere the need f the centre, r that me mmanent wrd reaty eparated the cen

tre and the perphery t ere t purpe n the ame waythat Gd dvded the frmament frm the water f the earthNeede t ay, the tep n the drectn f nam an

fnctnam wa taken very eary T retrct the dcunt the ependency ch, ard tk that tep n veryubte fahn There n metaphyca dtnctn


26/235

between nternal and external cndtn. In her wrdthe dynamc f dependent cuntre ne partcular apecf the mre general dynamc f the captalt wrld That

general dynamc nt hwever an abtract factr prducng cncrete eect t ext bth at the level f the partcular mde f t expren n the perphery f theytem and at the level f nternatnal captalm' mde fartculat n' 6

I matter ha remaned there n real harm wuld havebeen dne. Yet the belef n the realm f cncept thedea that there me general dynamc that ext inde

pendently f ur ntellectual recntructn f the partalcherence whch artculate cuntle partcular dynamc already becmng a belef n ytem the whle expreed n the artcular mde f t expren and nthe artculatn f ther element. Th lead t bth anmplct fnctnalm whch nt far remved fr thebelef that general dynamc create dnated mde n theame way that fnctn create rgan and a belef n the

prmacy f external caueAnyway fnalm and pemtc fnctnalm are bvufrm the utet f Baran argument that the decve pnt that the ecnmc develpment f the underdevelpedcuntre prfundly antagntc t the dmnant nteret f the advanced captalt cuntre Th certanlyan admrable ptn cmng frm an ntellectual peakngfrm wthn the heart f the Amercan Empre at the heghtf t pwer. And there are certanly enugh argument tback t up But theretcal term t a very weakptn. It prvde the ba fr a mpltc Thrdrldm and thrty year later the revancht New hlpher had nly t evke the gd cncence f the hteMan chkng back h tear t refte t.

I have n ntentn f exneratng Great atan lkeAerca and Brtan ttle atan lke France r mreabtract Great atan uch a aptalm r the rld Ecnmy I am mply ayng that results huld nt be

Cldwh causes of existence that a d f partl egaewch frm a yte' nt the ame thng ? a mwhch unfld' The frmatn f the nternatnal dvnf labur cannt be regarded a the delberate r fnctnal


27/235


rganzatn f a ytem ute apart frm the freedm fhtry the cla truggle and cmpettn between captalwe al have t take nt accunt the way n whch theextence f natn and f tate veregnty cmpartmentalze the reprductn f cal relatn

The tae n fact the archetypal frm f all regulatn It at the level f the tate that the cla truggle relved;the tate the nttutnal frm whch cndene the cmprme whch prevent the derent grup makng up thenatnal r at leat terrtral cmmunty frm detryngne anther n an endle truggle the pnt nt thattruggle cme t an end but that they rarely detryclae

T argue that wrld captalm ha frm the utet been angle regme f accumulatn wth frm f glbal regulatn tantamunt t ayng that me veregn pweretablhed regular trade w cdfed and guaranteed unverally applcable cal nrm and prcedure and thenwhen the need are delegated t pwer t lcal tate

that were Smultaneuly etablhed thrughut the wrldIt tantamunt t ayng that every cmprme and everyhft n the balanc f pwer at any gven pnt n the urface f the earth crrepnd t the need t adjut a ttallyadaptable and perfectly hmetatc cybernetc ytem

That mag a glmy a t unrealtc The develpment f captalm n any gven cuntry rt and fremtthe utcme f nternal cla truggle whch reult n

embrync regme f accumulatn beng cnldated byfrm f regulatn that are backed up by the lcal tate.thn thee natnal cal frmatn t may be the caethat relatn wth the utde wrld etablhed lng ag bycertan agent tradng cmpane mltary expedtnetc prved nt nly acceptable but even uefl t certandmnant grup and that they became decvely mprtantt the regme f accumulatn nfar a the natnal cal

frmatn can n lnger fnctn wthut them becauethey relve ne r mre f the cntradctn nherent nt mde f reprductn hen that happen therelatn muld he lcal cety habt' becme part ft regular wrkng and appear t have been degnedn purpe hat ha n fact happened that certan


28/235

cmpatble relatn have cmbned wth ne anther. therrelatn cud have dne but that wud have been a dfferent tr.

e mut then tud each national socialjoration inits own righ ung the weapn f htr tattc andeven ecnmetrc t dent t ucceve regme faccumuatn and mde f reguatn. e ut make acncrete ana f ther re and fa and ee t whatetent eterna fctr dd r dd nt have a rle t pa.

The tablzatn f a regme f accumuatn r a mde freguatn bvu cannt be anaed n term f t ec

nmc gc ane. uch dcvere are the utcme fcal and ptcal truggle whch tablze t frm ahegeonic syste n Gramc' ene f the term n therwrd ca allance baed upn a cnenu and a vangdegree f cercn whch hape the nteret f the rulngcae and metme me f the nteret f thedmnated cae nt the framewrk f a regme faccumulatn.

Thenrtea

aseLnthw y bu

he

wrkng ofe� whch uuaeenreat

wereas

t n fact annnte quantt f derentated tuatn e uS nn erm f

need t cere - 0,'

'Do eS;"ei

a ntentnalpractce never nterene n the underdevepment fperphera cuntre r that natna regme f accumu

latn are mp jutaped and d nt frm a tem Thbrng u back t am de Bakere prbem wth thecrme f the mteru Antchrt. e ved the mterb lkng fr a chan f caue and fr relatn betweengn but he a realzed that each tuatn wa pecfc. It true t a that n ne ene al the murder were caughtup n the cntradctn f the ame Benedctne nttutnand that n a ver pecfc ene the cntradctn dd

tend t generate an Antchrt. A t whether r nt thehand f atan wa directly nvved . . . that depend whchmurder we are takng abut.

I wll a n mre a I d nt want t gve the plt awa.It de hwever eem t me that th twfld anwerappe equal wel t mperalm. aptalm de have


29/235


genera cntradctn thugh they are nt away manfeted n the ame way and ther mprtance vare frm neregme t anther and frm ne dmnant mde f regu

atn t anther and captam de wrk If mperalmdd ndeed fnd even a prvna utn fr the cntradctn and f a partcuar chan f cncrete caue ddndeed generate and devep ebrync mperatreatn then t egtmate t ay that mperamdeveped becaue t reved the genera cntradctnt the advantage f certan natna captlm. But t want created n rder t relve them; t urvved and

deveped because t reved them. If therelve the cntradctn are fund r f ther cntradctna

p

Y

4


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I

22

gven to te study of eac soca formaton n ts own rgt(and n terms of ts reatons wt te outsde word) or, totake up te terms of an od debate, to the priacy / inter

nal causes.Just a moment Someone s sure to object tat externaand nterna' are not mutuay excusve terms, tat we can-not serousy overestmate te power of a young states aws,and tat uncertan fronters are no rea defence aganst tepower of capta qute agree We can see from teexampes of Ce, Poand and Afganstan tat foregn nter-venton, and sometmes even te treat of foregn nter-

venton, can nterfere decsvey wt oca strugges t appens every day n Afrca, and t as been known to appen n France, bot under te Vcy regme and n tedays of te Burgundans and te Armagnacs

Tat s te woe pont I we regard te domnant stratawtn domnated countres smpy as puppets of foregnpowers or f we make a broad dstncton between teword bourgeose and te peopes of te word, we w

be unabe to anayse te nnte number of dvergent nte-rests wc, nteectuay, we group nto force feds, butwc are n fact smpy pursung oca or ocay matera-zed nterests2 n reaty tey are no more tan partayntegrated, and t s troug te State tat tey fnd ter overa expreson Even i economc nterests and trans-natona deoogca pressures do abos fronters, t as tobe reembered tat te form n wc tose pressures andnterests are ntegrated s st te State form (even tougnot a terrtores ave reaced' tat form, and even tougcertan terrtores cam tat t as aready been tran-scended)

Can we g o s o far as to say tat determnate agents suc asforegn states or companes deberatey create or mantanmperast reatons because tey know tat tey wresove certan probems? Yes, of course, but ts s notnecessary te case Wars and coups dtat ave been

fomented to keep markets open, to get od of raw materas or to keep contro over a badypad abourforce Tat asaways appened, t st appens, and t w go on appen-ng But we aways expan te destny of domnatednatons n terms of obvous Macavean nterentons by


31/235


domnant groups, we cose specfc cases wt genera-tes Worse st, we cose a state of aars caracterzedby certan economc reatons wt te resut of specfc

actons on te part of a mted sector, wt actons desgnedto produce tat resut n many cases, tat sector may n fact ave been pursung noneconomc ams, and t may aveaceved resuts tat were not ntended

Frst and foremost, te outcome s te resut of nternaconcts or of a consensus (nuenced by varyng degrees ofcoercon) to coose a partcuar regme of accumuaton neac case, te coce' nduces te natona soca formaton

to a specfc poston wtn te erarcy of natons, buttat poston tse s not predetermned o mtter owstabe te erarcy may seem, and no matter ow co- erenty t may ncton, t s no more tan te prodct ofan uncertan process

Te needs of centra captasm approac tes us notngabout te successes of ort Amerca, Japan or Prussa, andnotng about te reatve destnes of Austraa, Canada or

Argentna fact t probaby eads us wdy astray wen tcomes to bot Canada and AgentnaMatters are obvousy rater derent wen t comes to

coones Tese are terrtores wtout a State and tey aresubordnated to te poces of te metropos, toug notwtout consderae resstance, and terefore not wtoutcompromses n terms of te needs of domnant metro-potan groups tey are obvousy fnctona (even toug

Span certany dd not know te prce t woud ave to payfor avng certan coones as opposed to oters) Smararguments appy at te regona eve Te needs of centracaptasm approac soud be questoned prmary wenapped to formay ndependent states wt a reatvey auto-nomous ed of cass strugge

Ts s te case ten, wt former coones n LatAmerca from te eary nneteent century onwards andwt some former Brts Domnons partcuary Canadaand Austraa at te end of tat century t s sgnfcanttat wen Frank rases ts ssue, e uses te anguage of teApocaypse, argung tat from te 180s onwards, botCannng and Bovar were gvng expresson to te storcaprocess tat, f not Provdence, word captast deveopment


32/235

24

ed n destny for Latn Amerca He ten qute rgtyreverts to te anguage of concrte anayss provdng adetaed descrpton of te key roe payed by te defeat ofan nterna bourgeose wc wanted to deveop manu-facturng ndustry at te ands of a bera bourgeose basedn te mportexport sector I te strugge ad been wo byte nterna bourgeose tere gt ave been a LatnAmercan Prussa or a Latn Amercan Japan But n tat casewat does word captast deveopment ave to do wt t?t s smy a concept wc ps us to grasp and nteectu-ay syntesze te outcome of concrete processes t cer-

tany does not predetermne te destny of any partcuarcontry

o Conclude Beware of the 'Inteational Divisionof Labour and Other Labels

Wst no mmanent destny condemns a partcuar naton to

a partcuar pace wtn te nternatona dvson of aboura provsona souton for te mmanent contradctons ofcaptasm can at tmes be found (and nsst tat s a matter of cance dscoveres) n devatons and derences betweenregmes of accumuaton n derent natona soca for-matons n suc perods a fi l of ossb postons n ot wods a rane o

rgs t s t tt �re not aocated n advane Te rung casses of varouscontr · fr · to a number of modes Te rungcasses of te domnant countres dream of reducng otercountres (wc may be aready domnated or st autono-mous) to a perpera status devsed n oter crcumstancesSoca aances wtn te domnated countres deveopstateges wc may dependng on te state of te nternacass strugge ead to eter dependency or autonomy Butnot a natona soca formatons can be domnant at tesame tme

Havng cased te gost of Word Captasm out of tedoor am not aout to et t come back troug tewndow Sometng wc forms a system and wc wenteectuay dent as a system precsey because t s pro


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vson ay stabe must not repeat seen an ntentonastructure or nevtabe destny because of ts coerence Ofcourse t s reatvey coerent; i t were not we woud ave

nternatona conct and tere woud be no more tak ofsystems But ts coerence s smpy te ect of te nter-acton beteen severa reatvey autonomous processes ofte provsonay stabzed compementarty and antagonsmtat exsts between varous natona regmes of accumu-aton

Centreperpery reatons to use a wdespreadconceptuazaton are not drect reatons between states or

terrtores wc are caugt up n a snge process Tey arerelations between processes, beteen processes of socastrugge and between regmes of accumuaton tat are to agreater or esser extent ntroverted or extraverted Reatonsbetween processes obey constrants of compatbty smarto tose wc reguate te process of capta vaorzatonwtn scema of reproducton: word output of equp-ment go ods must equa word demand for equpment goods

and so on nd as we we know scemas n wc everyoneproduces and excanges te same tngs do not ep toresove te contradctons of captasm

W9 ats pt n


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26

' '

1 .control, of one or another class alliance's unremitting eorts.r ..... achieve or l[)atona autonomy. It is not an '_r · C,L " . , " - - " H' _ . , " ,_ . • : ' ., ' pressn o the needs of Word Captasm' , except sofaras the existence of world capitalism does logically pre-suppose some regularit in the allocation of labour. It is, Irepeat, a chance discover, or rather the result of attemptsto resist or adopt chance discoveries.

As we shall see, ertan economc annairo Q "in fact tr

to man :s

the chessb of:

�p

u

aLy

, .

n

dQ

s

:.q " 6s y' ,f�1eQting .

,

'"

'y th�dQ1rop.ces i : R@i cr' o ols of la b opr

-c�rag:S,9J

m ;(e l.tiQns (i .e . , con-ditions of the sale and use of labourpower). They quiteconsciously organize an intenal geographical division oflabour, and it is true that the generalization of such

• practices does consolidate a new international division of labour

It would, however, be quite J to conclude that thisnewjm�rnationa

d

siO f laour is imp e

ooranZt

it on the pa of ltnat -panes The field can only be structured because the multi-nationals' project coincides wt a decision on t a5 of

y the ruling classes of c r ceon what _ .,�-" ',• -. �_"c·.·· _, ."·,, , • " " _ _ ,we

wI,

p iton strateg', a h can,a hl see, i r f den ternalregi . accmun ( blo ody Taylorism', peripheralFordism) The studies produced by ichalet's team sho

that multinational companies do not normally relocate cer-tain segments of the production process in order toestablish a new international division of labour.2 Thecapitalists of the centre are usually more concerned withgetting around trade barriers erected by peripheral coun

tries and with oloading their manufactured goods inaccordance with the old' division of labour.

A final word has to be said about the objective nature

of positions within the field' of unevenly developed nationalsocial formations. It is fairly easy to give a stlized des-cription of these positions by using conceptualizations suchas centre of the wrld economy/semiperiphery/peripher',developed countries/underdeveloped countries', rawmaterial exporters/ industrialized countries, introverted


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Questions of Method 2 7

countries/extraverte countries', subimperialism', CS'etc. It is much more iicult, an inee angerous, toapply any one of these labels to a given country, an it is stillmore angerous to escribe a countr on the basis of thelabel we give it or which it aopts.

The el' tself varies as regmes of accumulation in if-ferent countries (an therefore the ominat internationalregime) change. This oes not simply mean that one countrtakes anothers place or that the centre of the wol', asWallerstein or Brauel wol put it, moves from one country to another.24 It is the ver texture of the fiel which

changes The centre was once a city (Amsteram), an thenit became a countr (Englan, the ) but there is noreason why there shoul not be several centres or why thesystem shoul take the form of a network organize arouna centre. Why shoul we try at all cost to fin a preecessorfor Englan or a successor to the ?2

ore seriously, the fiel is in fact a quasicontinuu ofsituations, local regimes an moes of insertion into the

worl economy. Certain countries appear to certaininternal regimes of accumulation or certain moes ofinsertion, an we spontaneously ten to classi countries byreferring to these moels Once they have been classifie, weten to think that it is the abstract category which eterminesthe specific features of each country (even though we cannever quite agree as to which countr elongs to which cate-gor) But if we put Argentina into the same category as some

Caribbean banana republic on the grouns that its exportsare mainly raw materials', we are going to have problemswith Canaa.

National situations are no more separable by classficatorbarriers which efine the essence of their position in inter-national relations than are Boltanski's social classes Thereare of course tpical cases, classic centres' an classic peri-pheries' . Both theoretical work an empirical criteria reveal

certain similarities (the CS . In other cases OEC TheGroup of 77', etc. sefesignation comes into play. When aclasscation becomes wiely accepte, it becomes an ob-jective reality, if only because the countries that have beengroupe together' tr to form alliances with their fellows'in orer to efen their common interests', though they


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28

may well alter ther stance n the lght of other characterstcs whch seem to just other allances Ths real poltcalsolarty or materal recognton of beng n roughly thesame poston must of course be taken nto accunt

But when labels make us forget concrete analyss, anwhen we enter nto metaphyscal ebates as to whetersuch an such a countr belongs n such an such a categor because t s alreay farly extraverte' because t exportsso many raw materals' or so few nustral goos'; we areheang for saster atters become even worse when basccharacterstcs are euce from these categorzatons;when we are so blnkere that we see only those aspects ofthe concrete realt of a countr that correspon to the approprate category (foregn companes controllng theexprt sector etc.).

Beware of labels Beware of the Internatonal Dvson ofabour. ook at how each country works', at what t pro-uces, an for whom t prouces t. ook at how n whyspecfc forms of wage relatons an regmes of accumu-

laton evelope An be very carefl about castng a net' over the worl n an attempt to grasp relatons betweenregmes of accumulaton n erent natonal socalformatons.


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2

e Fortunes and Misfortunesof e Cenal Regime ofAccumulation: Fordism

Arme wth these caveats, we can now attempt to makesense of the latest epsoes n a tale fll of soun an fryan renche n bloo an mu the nventon an son

of captalsm, the expropraton of the peasantr, blooylegslaton' an force labour the rescovery of slavery anserfom, the volent colonzaton of the greater part of theworl crses, strkes an wars .

In orer to o so we must frst escrbe our conceptualtools (our scolng'), whch we erve from the work ofarx We wll then frther spec the notons of regme ofaccumulaton' an moe of regulaton va a bref examn-

aton of the twofol rupture brought about n both the pro-ucton process an overall regulaton by the emergence(agan from crss an war) of a central regme whch camento ts own n the post 9 pero: Forsm Then we wllexamne the nternatonal economc confguraton whenthat moel was n ts heyay an outlne the rst stages n ts• •

Ths chapter wll of necessty be schematc. ute apartfrom the fact that ts major theses have been evelope else-where, ts man purpose s smply to set the stage for therest of the book. we wsh to unerstan what s happenngon the perpher' (pragmatcally ene as that part of theworl n whch the regme of accumulaton foun n themost evelope captalst countres has not been able to

29


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30

tak root), mut bgin by looking at hat i happningin th advancd capitalit orld A hall dirntthing happn thr at dirnt tim, a it i not alay th

am contradiction that com to th for W can thrforxpct conidrabl mutation to occur in th rlationhipbtn th cntral rgim of accumulation and th rt ofth orld, and can xpct tho mutation to opn upth possibility (not th ncity) for dirnt priphrcntr rlation and givn local ocial truggl for thdicovr of dirnt modl of priphral dvlopmnt

(In Chaptr 3 ill go back to hat a happning on

th priphry hil Fordim maturd in th cntr atrchatr ill tak up th thrad of th tor by xaminingth dvlopmnt of it crii ith particular rfrnc tovnt on th priphr.)

Concepal Reminders

Marx mad hi ntial contribution by tring thimportanc of th ocial rlation tablihd ithin thproc of production. Both hi thor of xploitation andhi thor of th tag of th dvlopmnt of th capitalit organization of labour driv from that inight. At th amtim, Marx a vn mor aar than mot conomit ofhi day of th pcic problm raid by th circulation ofrvnu and product ithin a markt conomy In par

ticular h mphaizd tht th rproduction of a markt(caitalit) conmy impli a clo connction btnth production and circulation of commoditi and rvnuIt i not uicint to produc commoditi a buyr mutalo b found

Ay, thr th rub. W kno that th capt!fproduction a combination o to a= tin and ag rlation

" Commodi relations. Th ownr of uit o f roduc! on_1 rganize th invstmnt of lab9 r and put th product of

h

at

abor on th markt. Th pr oduct of dit urpsss taks th form of a valu which has to b socialyvalidated by bing xchangd f or m ony in othr words bybing realied or ol.


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Fordis 31

Wage relations Th onr of th unit of production buy laboupor from agarnr in xchang for a

quantit of mony ho valu i infrior to th valu addd

by thir labour th dirnc btn th to bingurpluvalu Th agarnr do at lat hav th advan-tag of big paid but in rturn thy hav to ubmit to thork diciplin and th organization hich th capitalitimpo in th factor.

For th capitalit mattr ar in a n mor compli-catd Th individual capitalit on a um of mony hichh xchang for man of production notably fixd capital

(invtmnt) and labourpor. H organiz th proc ofproduction, ll th commoditi (if h can), and accuulates mor capital and urpluvalu. Th initial valu h

on i thrfor a valueinprocess and it ill in timincra provided that he invests and valories it coectlAt th am tim th agarnr pnd hi ag andthu rcontitut hi labourpor for th nxt cycl Bothag rlation and th markt diviion of labour ar thu

rproducd W alo kno that broadly pakng, the rateof prot (th ratio of urpluvalu to capital) poitivlydtrmind by the rate of surplusvalue (th ratio ofurpluvalu to valuaddd) and ngativly dtrmind byth organic ompoition of capital' ( th ratio of valu adddto capial invtd) Both th factor ar thmlv dtr-mind by norm of production (hich dtrmin product-ivit and th coicint of prcapita fixd capital) and bynorm o conumption y agarnr.

But hat social guant i thr a all ctait (or not all' at majorit o ill ll thir com

=';

moditi, and that all agarnr il r Or-por In claical trm, thi i t prolm ialmand'. No dmand i prtructurd by th ditribution o rvnu and ilit m to bu -don o proution. product i ralizd' in thform of mony, th agnt ho control th unit of pro-duction can xpand production by rinvting thirturnovr and can thrby hlp to rcrat dmand and o on.

Morovr th tim of production and circulation ararticulatd ith anothr form of tmporalit that of tchnical


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32

change, whc s tself an eect of the accumuaton ofcapta uner contons efne by the present state of theconct between those nvove n proucton an str-buton, n other wos between wageearners an capta-sts. Those contons are, however, frther efne by othersoca casses (renters, sma nepenent proucers etc)n both vaue an voume terms, then, the structure ofsuppy an eman s etermne by the transformaton ofboth norms of proucton (percapta capta, ncreases nprouctvt), norms of strbuton (vson of economcsurpus nto wages, profts, rent, etc.), an norms of con-

sumpton (estyes of erent casses, etc. ) As we have areay seen, the term regie of accuulation refers to a systematc an ongterm aocaton of theprouct n such a way as to ensure a certan aequatonbetween transformatons of contons of proucton antransformatons of contons of consumpton A regme ofaccumuaton can be ene n terms of a schea of reproduction whch escrbes how soca abour s aocate over

a pero of tme an how proucts are stbute betweenerent epartments of proucton over the same peroDepaents can be ene as vsons wthn the pro-uctve system base on requrements of reproucton anaccmuaton (but wthout any necessar reference to thetechnca constrants of concrete abour). A schema ofreproucton s n a sense the skeeton of a regme ofaccumuaton or a mathematca agram of ts soca coher-

enceIn ts smpest form the vson nvoves two epart-ments Department 1 (proucto of means ou)an Department 2 (puon art f cpton)It can of course be ftr ne nto subepartmetsThus, Department can be subve nto proucton forDepartment an proucton for Department 2 , whstDepartment 2 can be subve nto proucton for age-earners an proucton for the rung casses (sometmesreferre to as Department 3' . I nternatona trae s akennto account, an export epartment can aso be entfe. Infact any macroeconomc fncton of proucton aows us toent a corresponng epartment.4 The exstence wthna socoeconomc formaton of other forms or moes of pro


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Fordis 33

uction which are reprouce articuation with capi-taism frther compicates regimes of accumuation.5 In suchcases, subepartments can be efine in terms of moes ofprouction which hep in various ways to perform macro-economic fnctions or to create the incoe of ierentsocia casses Departments are not to be confse withbranches an banch circuits which reate to the concreteivision of the abour process.

In recent years, ongter economic stuies have reveaethe existence of a wie variet of regies of accumuation Aregime of accumuation may be primariy extensive or pri-

mariy intensive epening on whether capita accumuationis a means to expan the scae of prouction (with constantnorms of prouction) or to frther the capitaist reorganization of abour (the rea suborination of abour tocapita) by increasing prouctivit or the coeicient ofcapita. It shou aso be note that the centre of he pro-uctive apparatus, in other wors the poe which structuresthe socia vaiation of prouction, may aso shift from one

epartmet to another. As aoix notes,6 capitaist prouction has at ierent times centre upon the exchange ofcommoities for rent or surpusvaue (Department 3 forconstant capita (Department 1 an for variabe capita(Department 2 Finay, a caref istinction must be maebetween the centre of he prouctive apparatus an itsheart, the point at which new norms of prouctioneveop

Ver schematicay, the regime of accumuation whichprevaie in the most avance capitaist countries betweenthe first inustria revoution an the First Wor War wasprimariy extensive, an centre upon the extene repro-uction of means of prouction Since the Secon WorWar, in contrast, the ominant regime has been intensivean centre upon the growth of mass consumption

A regime of accumulati on is n ot, h owever, some disem-b odied entit which exists in the ethereal w orld of schemas of reproducti on. I a schema is to be realized and to reroduce itsef fo any Cg oi0e, there must also be insi-tuti onal forms, pr ocedures and habits which either c oerce or persuade private agents t o conform to its schemas. These f orms are collectively kn own as a mode /regulation. Not


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34

ever mode of regulation i uitable for every regime ofaccumulation Economic crie, hich appear to interruptextended reproduction for varing period of time, may infact be manifetation of a variet of conjuncture7

Min or crises' simply sanction a latent failure t o adjust individual behavi our and expectation to te o1taIa ed of he regie o accumulation Ultimat l, yreetablih the unit of the circuit, and they are a normalelement in regulation ( crisis i [guationJ

aj or crie indicate( m f

regulation i otadequate to the gn either ecaue theegence of ie eld back by outdatedform of regulation (a in the crii of 1930) or becaue thepotential of the regime of accumulation ha been exhauted,given the prevailing mode of regulation (thi i probablytrue of b oth the crii of the late nineteenth centur and ofthe preent crii) " d

The major crii of the 1930 can in fact be analyedeither a the rt crii in intenive accumulation or a the

lat crii in copetitive regulation That mode of regu-lation a characterized by the a posteriori adjutment ofthe output of the variou branche to price movement, andby price movement hich ere highly reponive tochange in demand Wage ere adjuted to price move-ment o that direct real age ere either table or roeloly Such a mode of regulation a relatively adequate toextenive accumulation ith only minor change in norm

of production and conumptionWithin that mode of regulation, the tentative earch foran outlet for variou capital hich could not forecat theircollective groth ith any accurac a an everpreentproblem, and the poibilit of overproduction on either alocal or a general cale a a peritent danger: hence theimportance of the qution of market, particularly thoeoutide capitalim, to hich e ill return in the next

chapter But in the atermath of the Firt World War, thegeneralization of ne form of ork organization (theTayorit and then the Fordit revolution) led to unprecedented rie in productivit (of the order of 5 to 6 percent in France, a oppoed to an average of 2 per cent incethe rt indutrial revolution) Under competitive regulation


43/235

Fordis 35

fina demand did not keep pace ith the rie productivity.The boom caued by the enormou increae in relativesurplusvalue in the 190 gave ay to a major crii of

overproduction in the 1930.

Fordism: A ellRegulated Regme ofAccum ulation

Aer the Second W orld War, an intensive regime of accumu-lation centred upon mass consumption became generalized

becaue a ne olistic' me of eguaon incor-poratdboth roductivi rie and the correponding riein Oular consumption into the determination o wagesan nmina profit a prio. Thank to the original inght of Gramsci and Benri de Man, this regime is now kn own asF ordism'. The term refers to two phen omena which are theoreticaUy linked but which are als o relatively distinct and subject to hist orical and, as we shall see geographical

varaton.In the 190, a revolutionary mode of ork organizationbecame generalized in the A and, to a certain extent, inEurope. Thi a Taylorim, the proce hereby the kill of orker collective ere expropriated and ytematized byengneer and technician uing method of ScientificManagement. A frther tep a taken hen that yte-matzed knoledge a incorporated into an automatic

ytem, ith machine dictating orking method toorker hoe initiative had been expropriated Thi athe productive apect of Fordim' It hould, hoever, benoted that the preence of killed orker a til nece-ar at every level of the branche that ere Taylorized andthen Fordized Thi a particularly true in the metalorking indutrie, and even more o in the key area hereincorporation took pace, the branche manufacturingndutral equpment good and machinetool that conti-tute the heart of the productive apparatu It hould alobe noted that Taylorization preuppoed fro the outstthat the labourforce poeed certain kill or at leat a cer-tain indutrial culture.

Once the process g ot under way, it led t o a rapid rise n •


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36

abour r0utiviy

an, thanks to mehanization, to ann

rai<

ome a As we, his rise in proutivity e to the over-

proution risis of the 930s. To use a famous formula,mankin ha set itself a problem whih it ook fteen yearsan a giganti onit between nations asses an politialprojets to solve.

t i so by isovering a new moe of reguation whihalowe Forism to eveop y. A new eement was intro-ue the ontinua austment of ass consuption torises in routivit. Tis aatn e to hg an

t sty of wageearners to its normaization' an toits inorporation into apitalist aumuation itsef. Ater the perio of reonstrution in Europe whih was

by its very nature extensive an the Korean War, the OEeDountries experiene a new intensive wave whih was toast for twent years an whih was to resut in a onsierabe rise in both proutivit an in perapita fixe apitaBut this time the rise in the purhasing power of both pro-

utive an nonproutive wageearners mathe the risein proutivity amost exatly. The rise in proutivity wasmuh the same in both epartments. Both the organi omposition of apita an the sharingout of vaueae (therate of surpusvalue) remaine almost unhange.

ore etai will be given later. For the moment theseeveopments aow us to paint a stylize piture of theGoen Age.

e Golden Age

There are two main aspets to the Goen Age moe1 Overal

thnia

oms (a rough equivaent toperaita

fix ·) i

routivit in Department r a s;

j

at his onteting inuene' of thersing t hia omosition of apital inhibits the teneny of the organi omposition to rise (as the vaue of mahinesepreiates their voume inreases)

2) C gslm pti on , !Y 'g �.


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Fordis 3 7

otherwise ounterat' the faing rate of profit it alsoinhibits the teneny towars a risis of overproution anueonsumption Given that the organi omosition fapita oes not vary the genera rate of profit remainsstabe an aumulation an therefore ontinue at a steayrate.

Until the mi90s these onitions were more or essmet in the eveope ountries. But there was no a priorireason why that shou have been the ase. t was amost amirae that the first onition was met, H an statistia tashows that in the maor inustriaize ountries it wasereasingly true from the 90s onwars. On the other han a more or less expiit poiy of regulating wagereations by normaizing inreases in purhasing power ihelp the seon onition to be met partiulary as testabilization of wage relations was aompanie by theextension of wageearning to most ativities, inuing . - '. �'- manageent, market an iania reguation, an soial ontro

The reguation of wage reations took ierent nst tutiona forms in the various OEeD ountries but it usualyinvove

1 bining olletive agreements applying to allempoyers within a given branh or region (an thus pre-venting ompetitio from low wages); 2) n wagesestablishe by the State with perioi ns hasing power; an 3 a soia insuran system nane by

ompusorYontributions

n a wageearners apermanent iome even i they no onger reeive a iretwage beause of illness, retirement or unempoyment.

Regulation of wage reations was aompanie by aorhanges in relations between banks an inustrial firms. As aresult, firms oul transfer proution from one branh toanother an at the same time maintain pries in einingbranes. Similarly there were important hanges in the role

of the Stte, above all in the management of wage relations(the welfare state an iret wage relations) an themanagement of money.

ivate banks aquire the abiity to issue money by rviing e for b ms an househos. This reitmoney' antiipates the vaiation of vauesinproess an is


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38

wiped out wen te oans are repaid it is wagered againstte ig probabiit tat te borrowers wi be abe to repayTe monetar mass' issued by te banks tus represents aprevalidation' of productivey invested vauesinprocess 6But te banks aso require (at east to earo teir baances)a form of currency wic is unconditionay accepted andwc as be accepted wen debs ae repaid In oterwords, tey require a currenc issued by a Statecontroedcentra bank Some of te currency issued by te centrabank (te monetar base') may represent an internationacurrenc (suc as god or te currency issued by te centrabank of a egemoic countr, ike te doar), but most of itrepresents te oicia prevaidation or pseudovalidation' ofcertain debts (debts contracted by te state treasur, orprivieged credits rediscounted by secondar banks) Byestabising te eve of pseudovaidation and by using abattery of rues to obige secondar banks to od back some of teir credit in te form of centra currenc reserves, tecentra bank can iuence teir wiingness to end, or at

east te rate of interest at wic tey do end, tereby inu-encing oter agents' wiingness to orrowBy using te weaon of montar poic, te State can,

ten, atp uate or sow down te eon. t ndo te same ting by jugging ts spnding and revenueWen te economy eres a ot it an ct s ndincrease spending, reying upon te revenue generated byte subsequent recover to cut its deficit t can aso mani

puate minimum wages and/or te budget of wefareexpenditure Togeter tese various devices constitute tefamous too box of Keynesian poic'

Te working of tis mode of reguation, togeter witte generaization of Fordism witin te abourprocessmeant tat te two rues of te intensive accumuation ofte Goden Ae ma coud e respectd a riori For aperiod of · twenty years, te OECD countries enjoyed

exceptionay ig and reguar ongterm growt Terewere of course conjunctura sowdowns (recessions') andtere were aso major dierences between te growt rates of dierent counties, but it can be said tat eac countrexperimented wit Fordism and deveoped it to its advan-tage by expanding interna demand Being te most


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Fordism 39

advanced countr from the outset, the A obviously had alower rate of grwth than countries with a younger Fordis,but even so its economy still grew by almost 4 per cent peryear. The one exception was Great Britain which, because ofthe strength of its craft unions and the industrial apathy ofits financial bourgeoisie departed considerably om themodel of Fordist production and therefore had a lower rateof growth.

The mplicit Hegemony o/the USA

As we have just seen, international trade was of secondaranc to the Fordist model of growth The drivingo instead were the internal transformation of industriaproduction processes an the expansion of the itealmarket by increasing purchasing power. Foreign markets indoinatduntries which, as we shall see in Chapter 3,wee the traditional form of regulation under competitive

capitalis lost much of their importance The ratio of manu factured products exported to those sold on the homemarket reached a historical low in the sixties. Moreover, themain growth in international trade occurred within con-tinental blocs and within the OEeD in other words insideand between Europe and North America.

The outh was tendentially forced into the role of supply-ing labour and raw materials. The primar task of us political

and militar domination was to assure control over its rawmaterial resources. Certain countries in Latin America andAsia did aspire to the Fordist model by sheltering behindhigh tari barriers: this was the famous 'importsubstitutionpolic, and we will look later at the problems it involved.

the period 94565 then, international relations wereprimarily 'NorthNrth relations. Can we describe them asconstituting a world regime of accumulation or a world

mode of regulation What in fact was happening was thatEurope and Japan were 'catching up with the A ince theystrte ut rom unequal, dierentiated positions, the com-bination of 'dierentiation/catching up was in itself a regimeof accumulation and a mode of regulation providing thebasis for what Arrighi terms 'the implicit hegemony of the


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40

A 8 Te UA emerged victorios rom te econd WordWar enjoying great prodctivity advantages and prodcing63 per cent o te o te ive major contries (A UKWest Germany France and Japan) and 5 per cent o avaeadded in 50 t orced it Qoent onte rest o te word irst ctray tn inanci itte Marsa and MacArtr ans and inay instittionay

v wit te Bttn oods agreets and te estabiseo GAT te M a te OEeD

Under tese conditions tere was no need or an nter > "., " •. nationa orm o regation o wage eaos; te sae

pips cractazation a we stae increased pr-casing power) were niversay adopted even tog teytook dierent concrete orms in dierent contries Tedoar became te internationa crrency t was pedgedagainst te ncaenged vaidity o American vaesin-process; te prodctivity gap was sc tat American eqip-ment goods wic incorporated te ost eicientprodction norms wod aways ind bers in rope and

Japan America tereore ad a systematic trade srps Teony probem was te abiity o rope and Japan to byAmerican prodcergoods. At irst te probem was resovedby oans rom te us government bt increasingy it wassoved by overseas investment on te part o us irms As arest te UA ad a structra capita deicit Tis deicitprovided te 'base or a inernationa crrency: xeno-doars (doars ed by nonresidents). n teory te xeno-

doar (ne rodoar) was backed by us god reserves; inreaity it was backed by te ndeniabe vadity o Americancapitaist prodction And as we sa see wen its vaiditybecame probematic te A resed to excange te doarbaances ed by oreign residents or god

We do not ten ave an internationa regime o accm-ation in te tre sense o te term bt rater a wol -figuration tat temporariy garanteed tetiiity o

a tps siar gis o acation tdierent gr w ras nd ic were inserted into teineraina aewrk in dierent ways ery scem-aticay te UA reeqipped rope (and Japan) inexcange or rigts over ropean aborpower Mti-nationa companies prcased aborpower in excange or


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Fordism 41

the right to by merican prodcergoods The prchase ofthose prodcergoods together with the acceerated gen-eraization of Fordism aowed rope and Japan gradayto catch p wth us eves of prodctivitAs we sha see ater the word economy has not (yet?)deveoped beyond this impicit eve of organizaton Noinstittiona form regating word demand has beenpossibe No spranationa athority to contro moneysppy has been created The compementarities andantagonisms that exist betwee nationa economies remainnstabe constitting itte more than partia and randmconfigurations. We therefore cannot iteray speak of a wordregime of accmation 2

From Latent Erosion to Open Crisis (1967-1974)

f the css n be characterized terms of a genera down� ,._ ,". �_ >r�, . JF

. !

rcu

m

laJ

i n

, s!oy�r growth in man)lfctJ ,.9 -

pt}! a genera and contnos rise in Jt andve a an absnce o gO

we v

concdethat the premonitor signs were ar dy visibe from the967 recession

From that point onwards a sight downward sope began to appear in the curve linking the peaks in minor uctu-

ations in world industrial growth (6.6 per cent per year

beween 1 963 and 1 967; 5 6 per cent per year between

1 967 and 1 9 7 3 ) More significantly the curve linking thelows , which had until then been running almost parallel to

the 'peaks began to diverge falling from 4.8 per cent

between 1 967 and 1 9 7 1 to 2 . 5 per cent between 1 9 7 1 and

1974 .

The Roots of the General Crisis in Fdism

Three dierent species of phenomena and events shod bedistingished within the deveopment of the present crisis ) those which reate to the genera crisis in Fordism andwhich appear to some extent a thoe contrie whichhave adopted that mode of deveopment 2 the magniig


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42

eects of te interconnections between te various socio-

c

n

m

:

i

l

for

at

s

; and 3) p1nomena secj.JPec of te sOa� formatons n queston.

"e wl not dscuss natona specfctes ere, eventoug tey provde a ferte fed for researc npred byte same problematc as ts boo. Te dstncnbetween te frst two seres of penomena must on teoter and, be made very cear as t as obvous potcampcatons f w restrct te argument to the second tpete crss appears to be smpy a crss wtn natonalmonopostc regulaton, wc as come no contra-

dcton wt te nternatonazaton of producton tats n fact te case, a concerted recover would provde ananswer to te crss f we aso tae nto account te frsttpe t becomes apparent tat te crss aso aects te verbass of an ntensve regme of accumulaton based uponTayorst wor organzaton metods and Fordst mass consumpton We wll tr ere to syntese bot aspects

Te most obvous factor n te crss n te regme of

accumuaton s te genera downturn n rate of productvtgrowt Ts began n te late 1960s and aected abrances ncudng te car ndustry, wc s te most tp-caly Fordst branc But ow does tat downturn ead to acss?

We coud answer tat queston by stressng te CO!t;-d!L_e h .downturn d · te cntinued tenc to increase purcasing power. Tus it coud be argued tat

irs purcang pwer as ed to increased unit wage-

costs, to a profit squeeze and ten to crisis. Te statistics or te early 1 9 70s do not owever, support tis argumenr

' industrial cotries (Germany and Jaan are temporar xceptions) To e more speciic, te rise in purcasing power does not seem to ave acceerated autonomousy Te few cases in wic purcasing power did rise faster tan productivit can be better explained in terms of a sow-ing down of productivity growt. B esdes, if wage/proftdistribution were te origin of te crisis, it coud ave been warded o by smpy sowng down drect or ndrect wage growt

A more convncng expanaton taes nto account teoter component n te proftabt of capta By te md


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ordi 4

1960s the downturn n roductvty growth had ed to ncrease n er cata ct n v[ue terms or sttes o a r n th oranc coto of catal ncethen oductvy re hv d to menst for hers n he echnca cooston of cata, n, that s, theer cata voume of ed cata.

ntay the maru rocedures characterstc of mono-ostc regulaton (whereby frs add a margna rate torces comensate for the fa n mmedate roftabty byroducng a nomnal rse n rofts but that had reercussons n that t ed to a general ncrease n both rcesand wages and meant that a greater share of rofts had tobe oughed nto amortzaton ncreasngy frms ran ntodebt and the cost of debtsercng together wth the rse nthe relate cost of nvestment ed to a latent nestmentcrss Al ths too ace n an natonar clmate Thedownturn n netment together the at tat eachndvdual nvestment created fewer jobs, ed to a rse 'uneent and therefore to ncreang ressure on h

wefar sta " " "

No matter whether we emhasze the roft sueeze orthe rse n the organc comoston of cata the resentcrss n ntensve accumuaton

.

s

a y

whereas the crss of the {93s was a crss of over- u _ v " " > ' producin The nsttutonal orms of monoostc reguaton do n fact nhbt the deressve sra The ncrease )( n rect wages osets a fal n urchasng owe (d st '

the ra rse n unemoyment The soundness ofcredtmoney aows vauesnrocess to surve Frmswhch woud have been reduced to banrutc n a god-based banng system therefore surve too. Th r

�

th r

e aes the stans tgaon


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44

successfl in the 1950s and the 1960s were graduallybecoming obvious in purely organizational terms (not tomention their social costs ) . At a deeper level this form ofwork organization means that the majority of producershave no control over their own work and that the activitiesof engineers and technicians become the only sources ofproductivity. The nly way in which they can increaseoverall productivit is to invent ever more complexmachines. We can thus see why the downturn in product-ivity goes hand in hand with a rising coeicient of per capitafixed capita. Which leaves us with the problem of why the

latent crisis in Fordism which was being undermined byminor but cumulative changes degenerated into an obviousrecession. n order to understand that we have to take intoaccount both the international dimnsion and the reactionsof governments and employers.

From the Erosion of Hegemony to the First Oil Shock

From 1967 onwards a qualitative change radically alteredthe international configuration. Productivity in Japan andEurope (notably in West Germany and France) was now soclose to us levels that given the prevailing exchange rateunit wage costs were beginning to have an unfavourableimpact on competitiveness. The growth of multinationalcompanies in Europe and the extension of Fordist methods

in both Europe and Japan had allowed them to catch up.nvestment levels were still much higher there than in theUA

America now had a trade decit. Fort oxs goldreserves could no longer cover xenodollars. As Americanproduction became less and less competitive xenodollarscould no longer be regarded as representing a moneycurrency (gold) or as representing valuesinprocess that

would be unquestioningly validated at the internationallevel. The dollar was therefore thought to be overvalued.As a result the dollar gadually lost its role as an absolte

standard and began to fall against al other currencies. Atrade war then broke out between the three poles of thecapitalist world economy which were roughly equally com


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Fordism

petitive. The dierentiated coiguration of the 1950s andthe 1960s gave way to a confguration in which three poleswere synchronized in accumulation. Phases of expansionand recession in any one pole were directly echoed in theothers and their eects were cumulative.

The worldwide boom of 1973 strongly suggested thatthere would be a general recession in 1974 but its maineect was extreme tension in the raw materials market. Atthe same tie there was a nationalist upsurge in the ThirdWorld as explicit American hegemony came under directthreat in ndochina. t was in this objective and subjectie

conjuncture that the Arabsraeli War of October 1973 gavethe ruling classes of the oilexporting countries an oppor-tunity to take control of oil rents.

n theor the increase in oil rents simply reected achange in the ownership of a tiny fraction of world surplus-value. But in the developed countries which were alreadythreatened with recession and where the latent crisis inFordism was exacerbating tensions over the allocation of

valueadded the sudden rise in oil prices added an ilation-ary dimension to the struggle over its distribution.Employers and governments used ination as an excuse totry to reduce wageearners purcasing power by cuttingwages and restricting credit. Their initial successes in thatdirection led to depressed demand in the developed countries and that combined with a panic oloading of stockprovoked the first great recession of the crisis.

n 1975 however this austerity oensive was halted byworldwide resistance from workers and trade unions. Theautomatic stabilizers of the welfare state which had beenstrengthened by the precipitate extension of unemploymentbenefits (the ruling classes had been all the more generousin that they did not believe that the crisis was serious)helped halt the spiral of depression ensuring that consumption remained more or less stable despite the rise inunemployment. The safet net thus prevented a depressionand by 1975 a general recovery was under way particularlyas the oil ley which had been nanced by credit wasrecycld into a major increase in eective world demand.uch is the strange confguration which we will examinelater.


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Concluson

The east that can be said ater this rapid surve is that,j} e er-manent eesse a sQ d in a aret fY Reimes accumulatin which ar ixsve and reimes which are predminantl intensivebviusl relate t the utside wrld in dierent was. ema suspect that relatins with the utside wrld were r-inall ver imprtant, that the became less imprtant ascapital created its wn internal market that at ts heht,

Frdism marks the extent t which develped capitalism canbe autcentred and that the crisis in Frdism will pen upnew pssibilities. e will examine these issues belwbeinnin with the perid that takes us frm the riins tthe triumph f central Frdism But nce aain it has t bestressed that the needs f the centre d nt determinewhat happens in ever peripheral territr


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3

The Old Division of abourOr What Did Capitalism anti The Periphery?

While it is, as have attempted to show, true that in thecountries in which it first developed, capitalism did gothrough a series of dierent regimes of accumulation and

modes of regulation, it is rather pointless to attempt oelaborate a general theory of centreperipher relaions bydeducing it from 'the basic tendencies of the ode of pro-duction without analysing the specificities of those regimesand modes. And it has to be admitted that, in face of histori-cal developments which are blindingly obvious, theories of'dependenc and 'imperialism are out of date. I thosetheories continue to survive, it is only because they do con-

tain a grain of truth pertaining to past stages in historicaldevelopment. But even at the time of their elaboration, theyhad diicult in explaining how previous stages had led tothe existing configuration. And when, by some stroke of luck or bad luck), new facts seem to confirm their theses, theyhad diicult in identiing or understanding these emergentdevelopments. This is true of both the 'classical theories ofimperialism elaborated at the beginning of the twentiethcentury and of the dependency theories which ourishedbetween 1950 and 1960 a period which appeared to provethem right). Their conclusions have to be revised considerably in the light of events in the 1970s.

The present chapter will be devoted to a schematic analy-sis of both the history of real events and the histor of ideas.

4 7


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C outon Thephilosophical core of these theories can in fact be found inAdam mith even though he and the theorists of imperial-ism dier as to the merits of the international division oflabour

The basic argument is that the capitalist wage sstem led

to the emergence of relativ

Alain Lipietz Mirages and Miracles Crisis in Global Fordism

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