Accumulation by dispossession 743475 219260253 2008-06-14T10:41:01Z Lightbot 7178666 Units/dates/other {{Marxist theory}} '''Accumulation by dispossession''' is a concept presented by the [[Marxism|Marxist]] [[academic]] [[David Harvey (geographer)|David Harvey]], which defines the [[neoliberal]] changes in many western nations, from the 1970s and to the present day, as being guided mainly by four practices. These are [[privatization]], financialization, management and manipulation of crises, and state redistributions. ==Practices== ===Privatization=== [[Privatization]] and [[commodification]] of public assets have been among the most criticised and disputed aspects of [[neoliberalism]]. Summed up, they could be characterized by the process of transferring [[property]], from public ownership to private ownership. According to [[Marxist Theory]], this serves the interests of the [[Bourgeoisie|capitalist class]], or [[Bourgeoisie]], as it moves power from the nation's governments to private parties. At the same time privatization generates a means for profit for the capitalist class, because after a transaction, they can then sell or rent to the public, what used to be commonly owned. ===Financialization=== The wave of financialization which set in the 1980s is allowed by governmental deregulation which has made the financial system one of the main centers of redistributive activity. Stock promotions, [[Ponzi scheme]]s, structured [[asset]] destruction through [[inflation]], [[asset stripping]] through [[mergers and acquisitions]], dispossession of assets (raiding of pension funds and their decimation by stock and corporate collapses) by credit and stock manipulations, are, according to Harvey, central features of the post-1970s capitalist financial system. ===The Management and Manipulation of Crises=== By creating and manipulating crisis through e.g. suddenly raising of interests rates, poor nations can be forced into [[bankruptcy]], and into agreeing to [[structural adjustment programs]]. According to Harvey, this is administered by parties such as the [[U.S. Treasury]], [[Wall Street]] and the [[IMF]]. Debt Crisis like these were uncommon in the 1960s, but became very frequent in the 1980s and 1990s. ===State Redistributions=== The [[neoliberal]] nation state is, according to Harvey, one of the prime agents of such redistributive policies. Even when privatization appears as beneficial to the lower classes, the long-term effects can be negative. The state seeks redistributions through a variety of means, like revisions in the tax code to benefit returns on investment rather than incomes and wages, promotion of regressive elements in the tax code, displacement of state expenditures and free access to all by user fees and the provision of a vast array of subsidies and tax breaks to corporations. ==Examples== [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s program for the privatization of social housing in Britain appeared in the first blush as a gift to the lower classes which could now convert from rental ownership at a relatively low cost, gain control over a valuable asset and augment their [[wealth]]. But once the transfer was accomplished, housing speculation took over (particularly in the prime central locations), eventually bribing or forcing low income populations out to the periphery. Privatization is the process of transferring productive public assets from the state to the private companies. Productive assets include natural resources, such as earth, forest, water, air. These are assets that states have used to hold in trust for the people it represents. To privatize these away and sell them as stock to private companies is what Harvey calls accumulation by dispossession. ==Summary== Harvey links these practices to what [[Karl Marx]] called original or [[primitive accumulation]], and ties these to examples from the real world. The neoliberal [[modernity]] is thus, according to Harvey, a modernity in which dispossession plays a large role, and where the capital class is gaining power at the expense of the [[proletariat|labour class]]. ==See also== *[[Capital accumulation]] *[[Primitive accumulation of capital]] == References == David Harvey, The New Imperialism (Oxford University Press, 2003), ISBN 0-19-927808-3. ==External links== *[http://journal.ilovephilosophy.com/Article/The-Nation-State--Core-and-Periphery--A-Brief-sketch-of-Imperialism-in-the-20th-century-/1770 The Nation-State, Core and Periphery: A Brief sketch of Imperialism in the 20th century.] [[Category:Marxist theory]] [[Category:Sociology]] [[es:Acumulación por desposesión]]