May 11, 2011

Does contemporary capitalism tend toward fascism?

A recent discussion of William Robinson's article, Global Capitalism and 21st Century Fascism.

We have taken this from the website, Khukuri. A contributor, John Steele, introduced the article saying,

"We’ve had posts and discussions here on the existence, configuration and functioning of a transnational capitalist class (TCC), mostly on a fairly theoretical plane (as befits khukuri’s function). But, presuming we accept the TCC thesis, what are the effectson a more current-event and political level? Robinson’s essay sketches a series of theses along these lines.

We’ve published a couple of things (an interview and a co-authored paper) by Robinson previously. The piece below has appeared on Znet and Aljazeera.

'Under the conditions of capitalist globalisation the state’s contradictory functions of accumulation and legitimation cannot both be met. The economic crisis intensifies the problem of legitimation for dominant groups so that accumulation crises, such as the present one, generate social conflicts and appear as spiralling political crises. In essence, the state’s ability to function as a “factor of cohesion” within the social order breaks down to the extent that capitalist globalisation and the logic of accumulation or commodification penetrates every aspect of life, so that “cohesion” requires more and more social control.'Link

Read more here

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