Continental Political Thought - Essay Example

Continental political thought Neo-liberal capitalism talks about the aspect of globalization, neo liberalism demands for continued and huge exploitation of natural resources. It supports free trade, government spending reductions and extensive economic liberalization, this helps enhance the major role in the private sectors in the economy. Neoliberalism rose from the desire to eliminate the issues of economic failure. Capitalism is an economic system whose basis is on private ownership of production and capital inputs. Its basis is also on the production of goods and services only for profits. In capitalism, the goods and services depend on the supply and the demand in the general market. The ideology of capitalism is not about neoliberalism, during the era of capitalism the governance used in shaping the daily lives of citizens was more of cooperate governance than state governance. This corporatization holds the key driver to regulatory growth of the state. Neoliberalism ultimate goal has a situation where each action of every being revolves around the characteristics. Marx depicts capitalism as an inevitable fall, Foucaults analysis on neo-liberalism can account for the depiction of the fall as the amalgamation constitutes to an effectively political sociology that aids the reproduction of capitalism in a non-reductionist and detailed manner. Karl Marx depicts capitalism as an inevitable fall; he regards capitalism as a major unsatisfactory. Marx attempts to get rid of the issue of capitalism via the establishment of a communist community and violent revolution. Marx views capitalism as a historical stage, which would eventually stop due to the external conditions and contradictions. Through his definition of capitalism "a social, economic relation" between people, brings about the concept of abolishing capital. Through this concept, the people believe that the production enrich capitalists in the expense of their workers in private ownership. The argument in this is that exploitation of the workforce arises from the case of the owners being the means of production. The capitalist dynamic mode is eventually impoverishing the working class; this would hence result in social conditions for revolution. When private ownership is the means of production and the means of distribution, there is a creation of dependence of the non-owning class on the ruling class. This ultimately results in the restriction of human freedom, capitalism as a contradiction-laden system has the characteristics of recurring crises, which have the tendency of increasing severity. When the tendency unravels there is the creation of the objective conditions needed for a revolutionary change, this bringing the fact that capitalism is only a stage in the whole evolution of the economic system (Foucault, 22). Other forms of capitalism also advocate the overthrow of the whole concept of capitalism, this especially is in the form that would result to socialism. Overthrowing should be before the transformation to communism after the class of antagonists and that state stop existing. The whole concept of capitalism and Marxism influences the labor parties and the social democratic and moderate socialist who need change through the existing democratic channels, they tend to believe that capitalism should not be regulated. Foucaults analysis focuses on the contemporary capitalism; he does not take neoliberalism as an ideology or as a political theory, he says, “neoliberalism is a way of being and thinking.” Both neoliberalism and liberalism are practices and reflexive modes of special ways and actions that enhance the rationalizing of the governance. The Foucault analysis does not account for the shortcomings of the Marxist theory; his method do not cut for the study of any of the situations in which power differentials are present. These differentials are common in the politics world, if the Foucault theory on liberalism and neoliberalism focus was on the paradox of power in relation to the conditions of freedom, he would not have anything to say about global capitalism. In the birth of bio politics he says that neoliberalism is the relationship between the governed and the governor’s. In addition, the imperialistic subjection the global capitalism thrust upon the marginal states in the world would have left him speechless. This seeks the insertion of rhetoric of the imperial power into the analysis of the politics in the world. The Foucauldian international relation focuses too much in potential post terrorist politics; this is another reason the neo liberalization analysis fails to support that Marxists capitalism theory. The critiques facing the Foucauldian theory on neo liberalization bring very important challenges. In the demand for attention to the ongoing act of the ideological reproduction that assist in the hiding of the arbitrary, and the imperial nature of the politics in the world, the critiques against capitalism account for the reasonable roles played by all the imperatives in the global capitalist economy. This help in shaping some of the ideologies of security (Foucault, 218). Neo-liberalism and capitalism come together in a concept of the acknowledgement of the gaps between the soundness of the solution proposed and the living conditions of the unemployed and the impoverished. The crisis in the economy restricts the existential possibilities, this element presumably affected the general morphology of the liberal capitalism both in the aspect of the governments rationality and the socio-economic architecture. Foucault analysis on neo-liberalism concerns itself with the multifarious systems that support capitalism that the existing intricate mechanisms. The analysis focuses on the practices that sustain the socio-economic architecture, selections and discipline exclusions certainly have important uses on organizations and the economy. The analysis focuses on how capitalism infiltrates the daily life, capitalism requires some diverse techniques in power; these techniques exploit peoples time and bodies. According to Foucault, capital is not a pre-given social force and neither does it set the totality of social relations, he states that the interpretation on the concept of human capital previously thought to be non economic (Foucault, 219). Capitalism allows the measure of extent and nature if the liberalism effects; it identifies the arrangement of the behaviors that helps in survivals and development of the whole capitalism system. To Marx capitalism could never last long; however capitalism proves a reasonable widespread acceptance as a case of methodical indoctrination. In terms of power capitalism sees liberalism as a response to certain needs, this needs tend to emerge at certain stages of historical developments. Freedom is not a illusionary endowment of abstract liberal philosophy; its manipulation is in relation to a certain given ratio of productivity and happiness. To Foucault neoliberalism rationality channels and uses the life forces of the population, this is in terms of effectiveness and tolerability of the administrative mechanisms. Capitalist view the rise of neoliberalism concept as a process involving class re-composition and a process that results from a coordinated ideological offensive. Foucault disregarded the concept of reality and ideology, to him neoliberalism had a lifelike character, and neo liberalism stripped "abstract moralizing" and "metaphysical shroud" in liberalism. The rationality of the neoliberalism concept connects and produces the naturalness in human energies and endeavors. Neo liberalism replicates the laws of nature; the concept is adaptive endlessly and follows the lifes transformations. The eventual integration of the pre-political struggles is an inevitable by-product of the works of power, the tendencies inherent in the neo-liberalism show that liberalism extends to an endless horizon. Foucault believed that any wholesome expression in regard to subjectivity and the art of self-required the common basic conditions of possibility; that is a certain freedom from want. On the other hand, Marxs analysis can be defended against Foucauldian ideas about how workers themselves exercise power within capitalism. This is because, in Foucaults account for the disciplinary power, he provides a story that relates to the disciplinary power in the modern society. The power cannot be "possessed," it can only be "exercised." The probing of the two aspects of exercise and possession and subjectivity become readily apparent. The characteristics of "exercise and possession" include the fact that they both last for a short or a long period. Exercising power can last for either a long or a short period and so can possession of this power. Foucault says, “he sells his labor power (Marx) for a certain time against a wage established basis.” The idea that Foucault raises that is exercising power brings in the understanding about the power of the ruling class (Foucault, 221) In the discussions about power, Foucault talks about discipline power and formalism. The theory of Marxism and juridical theories neglect the immediacy and the complexity of power in day-to-day life. These two theories underestimate the extent to which modern identities produce, this is only in the aspect of "failed repressing" by some various overlapping aspects of power and knowledge. It is right to say that Foucault brought a new way for understanding power; this is because he defines power in a simplified way (Foucault, 30). In capitalism, the higher class tends to exercise and possess the power, in that they can control their workers in the way they want. This may bring about oppression to the workers since the high class gives the workers instructions on how to do on a day-to-day basis this is the exercising of power. The possession comes in at the higher class as they always have the power; they are the bosses of the lower classes (Foucault, 298). Understanding the disciplinary powers should be in a way that is complementary, not in a way that is "rival" to the Marxist theory. Foucault in local settings tries to show the pervasiveness of power, this rather relates to the perspective of capitalism by the Marxist theory. Birth of bio politics states that “abstraction of power and labor only appears through a variable of time.” Power plays an important role in the maintenance of some relations of a class domination and production; this brings about the aspect of specific forms of power rendered possible. Marx argues that power preserves both the dominance and the economic system of those who own productive resources within it, this making it to be "rendered possible." (Foucault, 223) The Marxists are cynical than the liberals; this is in the aspect of the functioning and the nature of the state in the capitalistic societies. Marxists believe that power has a center in the sense of it, some however exercise power in a way that it has harmful effects on others. Control however is the most important basis for exercising power; this control is over the dominance and the most productive resources in the relations of production. This in turn helps deliver a disproportionate degree in control within and over the alleged sovereign state. In depicting power in other spheres, there is the need to maintain the existing social conditions necessary for the continuing of a profitable accumulation of capital. In the Marxs concept, there is a great need to emphasize the role of securing acceptance and obedience of the social order, this is in terms of the dominating class, political power as per the Marxists cannot be legitimacy exercised unless the class of the working people, gains a substantial measure of existing control of the means of production. The lack of this there is the existence of systematic bias by the political system (Foucault, 295). Work cited Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Pantheon, 1977. Print Read More