Title: The Challenges of Liberation Theology to Neoliberal Economic Policies
Abstract: Some of the steadiest opposition to the capitalist system is currently to be found in Latin America, where the extreme social conditions endured by most of the population have led to the appearance of revolutionary movements and the current of theological thought known as Liberation Theology. This work examines some of the more important features of this theological movement, and assesses their importance as elements of opposition to capitalism. The Neoliberal System: The Current Debate The capitalist system is at present the subject of a great deal of analysis and criticism. The most common reference point in the debate is the recent collapse of the socialist bureaucracies of central and eastern Europe, which has led to repeated claims that our world is witnessing the end of the age of ideologies. One of the most enlightening consequences of this theory, propounded by neoliberal groups, is that it shows up a technocratic pragmatism looking to enshrine the liberal capitalist system as the best, and even the most desirable, of all possible ways of ordering the world (Berger, 1989). Social democracy has also been questioned since the fall of the central and eastern European bureaucracies, although this is due in part to present-day capitalism's status as the only remaining great worldwide socioeconomic system. More and more governments once faithful to socialism are now abandoning social democratic objectives, with many countries neglecting efforts to integrate the poor and the underprivileged into society. Measures like special employment programs, and the general defense of their interests, are being quietly forgotten. Consequently, the subclass of the poor and outcasts is being definitely excluded from the closing circle of production, in which people are differentiated according to levels of income and consumption. As a result, the ranks of the new urban poor, shut out from production and consumption, are increasingly swelling. In a recent analysis, Galbraith (1992: 20) identified this phenomenon, one of the major effects of the market-oriented society, as a typical feature of the affluent societies of the North. Discussion is also rife over the division of contemporary capitalism into two large blocks (Albert, 1991). The distinction is made between the neo-American model, based on individual success and economic profit in the short term, and the Rhenish model, which values collective success, consensus, and a concern for the long term, current in Germany, Switzerland, the Benelux countries, Scandinavia, and even Japan. Although some authors find this division of capitalist countries interesting, it is not particularly useful for our approach, as both are essentially expressions of the same liberal capitalist system. Much attention has also been given to the consequences of the late-20th-century technological revolution in the advanced industrial societies: the automation of work processes, robots, computers, the managerial revolution - all of which favor further intensive development within the capitalist system, with economic, political, technological, and military power being increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few nations and an ever smaller minority of the world's population. The new revolution has caused a series of structural transformations that are modifying relations between countries and social classes, and also between those countries that have a share of power and those that are increasingly left out, unable to keep up with the new type of society. As Touraine saw in 1977, knowledge has become the main axis for the accumulation of power in the world today, the consequence being the concentration of power in the North and the widening of the gap between North and South. Democratic liberal capitalism, which has always claimed representative democracy and the market economy as its two distinguishing features, has found a firm ally in neoconservatism, which insists on attempting to overcome the contradictions of capitalism today (Bell, 1976). …
Publication Year: 1994
Publication Date: 1994-12-22
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 4
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