Re: The Road to Serfdom

[Martin Hart-Landsberg <marty@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I wanted to also focus on another part of the Chinese experience, that
is the Chinese success in export growth.  Interesting, and not really
surprisingly given IMF pressures and debt pressures, every East Asian
country affected by the economic crisis in 97-98 is more dependent on
exports for growth than before the crisis.  China over the 90's has
become increasingly export oriented as well, with an increasing
percentage of exports being produced by foreign capital.  This
development, as export production in China moves up the technological
ladder, is putting new pressures on East Asia and even Mexico.

Those who embrace China from the right, like the IMF and World Bank,
argue that it is China's market reforms that have attracted so much FDI
and allow it to export so well.  Those who embrace China from the
progressive side say that China retains state direction capacities and
national controls and its export growth is a sign of the success of
that model.

I hear few people raising critiques of export-led growth itself as a
strategy.  The WTO and FTAA all are designed to intensify integration
and thus more trade and thus more export-orientation as well.

Should we be building more of our critique on contemporary
international developments by focusing on the dangers of export-led
growth as a strategy of development.  I was surprised when in Cuba to
find so many economists there in awe of China's export led growth and
eager to try and figure out what to do to replicate it.   In other
words, it seems that export success has become a critical measure of
success even for those on the left.

Marty

Quoting "Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>:

> I don't want to get into defending Charlie Andrews' concepts (since I
> don't agree with them completely). But the idea involves not
> profit-max but minimization of costs, subject to constraints imposed
> by the democratically-run government and the system of enterprise
> governance that Charlie describes. If I were to point to an analogy,
> it wouldn't be China but to the non-profit foundation sector in the
> US. Obviously, that sector serves those who donate money, but in
> Charlie's scheme, that sector is different.
> Jim
>
>       -----Original Message-----
>       From: Martin Hart-Landsberg [mailto:marty@xxxxxxxxxx]
>       Sent: Sat 8/9/2003 1:45 PM
>       To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>       Cc:
>       Subject: Re: [PEN-L] The Road to Serfdom
>
>
>
>       Jim, the notion of competing enterprises was precisely at the
heart
> of
>       the Chinese position in the early days of reform.  But how do
you
>       promote competition, well you need some sort of profit
inducement.
> So,
>       early on the Chinese encouraged firms to operate independently
and
>       pursue profits.  But, competition also means change and
response to
>       market needs.  Thus, critical to the entire process is labor
market
>       flexibility, or the freedom for management to hire and fire
> workers.
>       In fact, the Chinese state encouraged foreign investment at each
> stage
>       of the reform process, including joint ventures pretty early in
the
>       process, because it saw foreign capital as setting the basis for
>       capitalist labor relations and encouraging profit maximizing in
the
>       state sector.
>
>       In short, based on my study of the Chinese experience, while
there
> were
>       some in the state that just supported growing marketization for
> their
>       own gain, there were many in the party that saw the need to
> overcome
>       problems of imbalance and inefficiency from the Mao era and
sought
> to
>       do so by encouraging competition between firms and this lead
step
> by
>       step to promotion of profits, and the creation of a labor
market and
> ...
>
>       Marty
>
>       Quoting "Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>:
>
>       > Rather than discussing "market socialism," I think it would be
> worth
>       > pen-l's while to discuss Charlie Andrews' proposal for
competing
>       > not-for-profit enterprises (in his FROM CAPITALISM TO
EQUALITY).
>       > Maybe Charlie could be dragooned into participating.
>       >
>       > Jim
>       >
>       >
>       >
>       >
>       >
>       >
>       >
>
>