Going Global: Differential Accumulation and the Great U-turn in South Africa and Israel
Nitzan, Jonathan and Bichler, Shimshon.
(2001).
Review of Radical Political Economics. Vol. 33. No. 1. pp. 21-55.
(Article - Journal; English).
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Abstract or Brief Description
This paper offers a new theoretical approach for comparing the current political-economic U-turns in South Africa and Israel. Our principal focus is on a revised notion of capital, emphasizing the central role of differential accumulation by dominant capital groups. We further distinguish between an antagonistic “depth” regime in which differential accumulation is achieved via stagflation, and a less conflictual “breadth” regime where redistribution occurs through growth. Within this framework, we argue that both the recent transition in the two countries, as well as their former regimes, were greatly affected by global developments. Until the 1980s, accumulation in both countries depended largely on depth, characterized by a marked disparity between deepening crisis on the one hand, and rapid differential accumulation on the other. In South Africa, the large companies benefited disproportionately from the impact on gold profit of global inflation, and were therefore reluctant to abandon apartheid. Similarly, Israel’s leading firms recorded spectacular gains riding the global arms race and regional conflict, and hence voiced little opposition to the continuation of a war economy at home. Recently, however, these global forces went into reverse, triggering in both countries a shift from depth to breadth. The disinflation associated with rapid globalization undermined gold profit in South Africa, while the end of the Cold War pulled the rug from under the global arms race, drying up the flow of war profit in Israel. In these new conditions, dominant capital groups in the two countries can sustain their differential accumulation only by investing outside their own borders. Capital mobility, though, requires political-economic stability, hence the support of these groups for democracy in South Africa and to regional reconciliation in Israel.
Language
EnglishPublication Type
Article - JournalKeywords
Arms accumulation acquisitions apartheid capital capitalism centralization competition conflict conglomeration corporation credit crisis debt demographics development distribution dual economy elite energy finance globalization gold growth imperialism distribution inflation institutionalism IPE Israel labour liberalization M&A merger methodology Middle East military national interest security ownership Palestine peace politics power privatization profit ruling class sabotage South Africa stagflation state stock market technology TNC United States US violence war ZionismSubject
BN Science & TechnologyBN Agency
BN Business Enterprise
BN Capital & Accumulation
BN International & Global
BN Civil Society
BN Labour
BN Civilization & Social Systems
BN Class
BN State & Government
BN Comparative
BN Methodology
BN Conflict & Violence
BN Money & Finance
BN Cooperation & Collective Action
BN Value & Price
BN Crisis
BN War & Peace
BN Power
BN Demographics
BN Policy
BN Distribution
BN Production
BN Region - Africa
BN Growth
BN History
BN Region - Middle East
BN Ideology
BN Industrial Organization
BN Institutions
Depositing User
Jonathan NitzanDate Deposited
16 Sep 2004Last Modified
21 Dec 2015 20:45URL:
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