The Taos
Discussion
Sunday, August 07, 2005
reference to a theory that multi-culturalism is under threat from a far right political control over capital formation (see [#] )
From: http://www.simpol.org/dossiers/dossier-UK/html-UK/book-UK.html
The
Simultaneous Policy: An Insider's Guide to Saving Humanity and the Planet
By John M Bunzl
Executive Summary
The principal barrier to implementation of any significant measure to
improve today's environmental, economic or social problems, be they in
advanced, developing or non-industrialised countries, is destructive
competition. Global de-regulated capital flows and corporations know no
national boundaries and by their ability or threat to move elsewhere, force
nations to compete with one another for capital, jobs (and therefore votes) and
ever scarcer natural resources.
With increased government reliance on capital markets to finance public
deficits and on corporations to maintain employment, internationally mobile
capital effectively precludes the implementation of any national policy that
might incur market or corporate displeasure. The markets have consequently
engineered strong leverage over the economic, social and environmental policies
adopted by any country ensuring that only market-friendly, neo-liberal policies
are pursued — regardless of the party in power . The result is the
strangle-hold of pseudo-democracy in which, whatever party we elect, the
policies delivered remain substantially the same. Since virtually all nations
are part of an increasingly integrated global economy, they are all subject to
the same strangle-hold. In advanced countries, it is exerted directly by the
market itself, ably assisted by the WTO; in developing countries, by the market
and through "structural adjustment" imposed by the IMF or the World
Bank; in non-industrialised countries by the virtual absence of any foreign
direct investment leaving them to the consequences of warfare, poverty,
disease, increasing numbers of refugees and so on.
No nation can exit from this predicament by seeking to re-regulate
financial markets because such action would cause capital flight, devaluation
and inflation if not outright economic collapse. Similarly, policies that seek
to address environmental or social problems requiring higher public spending or
higher costs for industry are precluded on the grounds of uncompetitiveness,
adverse market reaction and the threat of job losses. In de-regulating capital
markets, nations have therefore unleashed a force they can no longer unilaterally
control – a global competitive merry-go-round now spinning so fast that no
nation can get off (unless it is forcibly ejected by the market itself).
This paper therefore argues, firstly, that politics – regardless of the
party in power – has effectively been paralysed into a market-friendly position
from which it cannot escape. Secondly it argues that fundamental changes to the
capitalist system are essential before there can be any hope of closing the
'sustainability gap' or of expecting any tangible results from international
agreements on reduced emissions. Thirdly, since capitalism can only be changed
and controlled by politics — which has itself already been paralysed — we are
heading for environmental, economic or social collapse without the means to
alter that course. Solutions that fail to address the central barrier to reform
that global free markets and international competition represent are therefore
effectively dead in the water.
In spite of this state of affairs, this book sets out a feasible means
not only of regaining control of global financial markets and corporations, but
of going much further towards creating the conditions for a global society and
economy more compatible with Nature and the needs of human nature. The
disturbing growth of far-right political parties is a sure sign that failure to
do so could well prove catastrophic. This book therefore argues that a
fundamental transformation from international competition to global cooperation
is required, for only through global co-operation between nation states can
destructive competition be eliminated and meaningful changes implemented.
Crucially, it also sets out a practical method of achieving this. It therefore
represents something of a "missing link" without which the many solutions
now being proposed by leading economists and ecologists are likely to remain
confined largely to theory.
To break the vicious circle of global competition, both between nations
and between corporations, all nations need to act simultaneously by implementing
the Simultaneous Policy (SP); a range of measures to re-regulate global markets
and corporations in order to restore genuine democracy, environmental
protection and peace around the world. SP thus calls upon peoples all over the
world to recognize the futility of conventional party politics and to unite
both by taking policy out of the hands of politicians and, by force of their
numbers and their votes, by bringing political parties into competition with
one another to adopt SP. By separating the adoption of SP from its
implementation, SP transcends party-political differences and allows voters,
NGOs, politicians and governments to adopt it without risking their respective
personal or national interests. It therefore represents political action of a
kind not yet seen: a New Politics of cooperation and community that transcends
both the divisions of conventional party politics and the dilemmas of
maintaining international competitiveness. SP thus offers a real prospect –
perhaps the only prospect – of beneficial change and survival.
This New Politics has profound implications for North-South relations,
the global environment, world economics, global governance, Green parties,
non-governmental organizations, international relations, national domestic
politics and, not least, for the triumph of the human spirit.
John Bunzl – March 2001.