The Neoliberal Pattern of Domination—Capital??Reign in Decline

Insisting on the continued relevance of class analysis in understanding society, Bermudez (U. Autonoma de Nayarit, Mexico) presents an analysis of class domination in its historical development and in its current neoliberal form. He begins by defining the capital relation--the separation of producers from the means of production--as the essential relation of the capitalist world. He then identifies two basic forms of capital and exploitation: the natural tendency, which seeks the complete submission of the working class to all requirements for the spontaneous movement of the exploitation and accumulation of capital, and the contained form, in which capital is forced to adapt to a working class (and society in general) that has managed to wrestle concessions from the capitalist class and placed constraints on the spontaneous movement of capital. He identifies liberal, Keynesian, and neoliberal orders as respectively natural, contained, and, again, natural historical manifestations of capitalist class domination (mirrored in Latin America by oligarchy, developmentalism, and neoliberalism). Finally, he provides a more detailed analysis of neoliberalism in the United States and Latin America, focusing on developments in four areas: the economy, the state, the state administration of criminal activity, and the intellectual and moral leadership of neoliberal capital. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Jose Manuel Sanchez Bermudez holds a Ph.D. in Political Science (Universidad de Zacatecas, 2008) and is Professor and assistant director for the Economy, State and Society program at the Universidad de Nayarit in Mexico. He has published numerous articles on globalization, neoliberalism and the structures of political domination.