Singapore Lianhe Zaobao published an article entitled "Idiot, this is capital" on June 65438+1October 65438+April 4, written by Zheng Yongnian, director of the Institute of East Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore. The article said, "Idiot, this is capital." I just want to apply Clinton's slogan "Idiot, this is the economy" when she ran for president in 1992 to analyze the social protest movement sweeping the world and its misunderstanding.
The root of the three revolutions is capital.
According to this article, two different social movements are taking place in the developed west and the developing society where the socio-economic level is still underdeveloped. The social protest movement of the former is a movement against capitalism; The latter is manifested in the democratization movement. Once people attribute social movements to the contradiction between the government and society, the problem will be simplified. As a result, the sports organizers misjudged the goal and used the wrong way, which led to the ending running counter to the goal.
Social protest movement actually involves the relationship between capital, society and government. To understand the social protest movement, discussing it from the relationship between capital and society may better explain the essence of the problem and find a reasonable solution. In modern times, as long as there is a market relationship, capital has always dominated the relationship between capital, society and government. Judging from the relationship between capital and society, the world has experienced two great revolutions in modern times. Today's world has entered the third revolutionary era. The root of these three revolutions is capital.
The first revolution can be called the bourgeois revolution, which was a struggle between the bourgeoisie and the monarchy. This revolution first happened in the west, and then spread to other regions. It lasted for centuries and wrote modern history. Businessmen are the leading force in the formation of modern countries. The interaction between businessmen and monarchs is the beginning of modern democracy. Historian barrington Moore once vividly said that without the bourgeoisie, there would be no (Western) democracy. Businessmen, the later bourgeoisie, were the first class to share political power with the monarch, and they also tamed the autocratic power of the monarch with economic power.
The workers' movement produced two results.
The second revolution can be called the proletarian revolution or the working class revolution. After the unification of modern countries, businessmen became the ruling class, and the economy of western countries continued to develop, which also led to the industrial revolution. After that, the west gradually developed large-scale factories and production methods, resulting in a new working class. In Marx's words, it is the proletariat, that is, the class that sells its labor. Early capitalism was mercenary and belonged to primitive capitalism. This is the golden period of capitalist development, and it is also the tragic period of society. Gradually, the conscious working class launched wave after wave of social protest movements, that is, the working class movement. By the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century, the working class movement reached its climax. Marx described this process as a process in which capitalism created its own "grave digger".
The working class movement is a conflict between capital and labor, which has produced two completely different results. In western Europe, the movement led to the emergence of the democratic socialist line, the capital and the working class reached a compromise, and gradually moved towards the welfare state system. The working class movement promoted the transformation from primitive capitalism to more humane capitalism. The government has played an important role in this process. In the past, the government was the agent of capital and served it. The working class movement contributed to the relative separation of government and capital and became a relatively independent force. In order to protect capitalism from self-destruction, the government implements various forms of social policies (such as social welfare) to ensure social stability and the normal and effective operation of capital. In the later period, with the gradual extension of voting rights to the working class, the motivation of the government (politician) has also changed, gradually favoring workers (votes). The transformation from primitive capitalism to welfare capitalism is a process of political and social reform, creating a mutually acceptable balance between capital and social forces, obtaining a stable new environment for capital and new benefits for society.
At the other end, mainly in underdeveloped countries, the proletarian revolution created the socialist model of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Its characteristic is to eliminate capital and market economy and try to let society control the economy through public ownership. This is also a major experiment in human history, which has achieved quite good results in the early stage and has become the main path for backward countries to catch up with developed countries. The problem is that this model has finally moved towards "poor socialism". Because there is no capital and market, politics has replaced the market, and economic development has no motivation. In the process of competing with the western model, it finally failed.
The world has once again entered a revolutionary state.
According to the report, today, the world is once again in a revolutionary state, and the main force is the middle class. Similarly, the root of this revolution is capital.
In western developed countries, the anti-capitalist goal of social protest movement is very clear. Among society, government and capital, capital is always the most powerful force to pursue its freedom.
The essence of capital is the pursuit of profit maximization. Once it encounters resistance, it will try its best to overcome it. After World War II, western countries basically established a supervision system for capital. This is naturally related to democracy, because the government must be accountable to the people. The problems caused by capitalism today are also closely related to popular democracy in the West. Capital fled from democracy and pursued "freedom", which caused many social problems. Under popular democracy, politicians tend to favor "votes" (social forces), and democracy has become an "auction" of welfare. The welfare state has brought a heavy burden to capital, that is, high taxes, while the regulatory state has set many obstacles to capital and restricted its activities.
There are two ways for capital to pursue "freedom". First, globalization. Globalization since 1980s has been driven by capital under the banner of neo-liberalism. Globalization means that capital has no "national boundaries", has escaped from the "control" of sovereign countries, and has found space for free development overseas. Second, the innovation of capital itself. The innovation of capital occurs in various fields. For example, developing new industries. Once a new industry is formed, the government needs time to establish laws and regulations for it, and capital will have a long free period. For another example, financial (Wall Street) capitalism has become the main body of American capitalism, and it has developed to the degree of "too big to fail", holding the government and society hostage. The global financial crisis in 2008 was the product of financial capitalism.
The article said that the "Occupy Wall Street" movement took place in the United States, aiming at capital, and it went away. Under the pressure of society, the government wants to restrict capital, but what can the government do in the state of globalization? Therefore, capital is still popular. In Europe, social protest movements are also anti-capitalist, but they are aimed at the government. Similarly, what can the government do with capital? The government needs the contribution of capital to support welfare system. Popular democracy is "one person, one vote". Through "one person, one vote", people can guarantee "one person, one share". However, what system can guarantee that a person can contribute a share? The profound contradiction between capital, welfare (society) and government is the root of European governance crisis, and no one knows how to solve it.
Social struggle has gone in the wrong direction.
The article holds that social protest movements in East Asia have the same roots as those in western developed economies, both because of globalization. Globalization leads to the high mobility of capital, the loss of the government's economic sovereignty (the narrowing of the tax base and the reduction of employment opportunities), and a large number of economic benefits flow into the hands of a few capitalists who can control globalization, resulting in huge income differences and social differentiation, resulting in social protests. But what can the government do with capital?
According to the article, in underdeveloped Asian countries, social struggles are more complicated. The development of these countries needs a lot of capital, but capital also brings many problems, such as income difference, social differentiation, human rights and so on. Therefore, people also hope to solve the problem through democratization (that is, changing the relationship between the government and society). Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar all face this situation. Paradoxically, capital needs stable social conditions to develop the economy, while democracy often goes the other way, expelling capital.
Under globalization, more and more social problems are caused by capital. However, the anti-government nature of social movements makes it more difficult for the government to establish a balanced state between capital and society. Nowadays, many governments are in a dilemma: "pro-business" will lead to the loss of votes, and "people-friendly" will lead to the loss of capital. More and more governments find it difficult to strike a balance between "pro-business" and "people-friendly".
According to the article, historically, "democratization can solve problems" is at most a wrong assumption. In modern times, democracy can play a certain role, but it is not omnipotent. On the contrary, it may lead to the deterioration of the situation. Many social protest movements have gone in the wrong direction. Although the root of social problems is still the relationship between capital and society, the government created by democracy is getting weaker and weaker, and it is difficult to play an important role and promote the compromise between capital and society. More likely, democracy is moving towards a populist line. Populism in the last century led to "poor socialism", and today's populism is likely to lead to "poor democratic society".
During the Second Revolution, Marx conceived the idea of "the proletarians of the whole world unite" to deal with capital, but it didn't succeed because nationalism defeated internationalism. Today, Thomas Piketty, the author of Capital in 2 1 century, is conceiving that "the governments of the whole world should unite" to deal with capital, which will not succeed, and nationalism will also triumph over internationalism. History is still circulating. How to establish a balance between capital and society is still the most severe challenge in this century. However, historical experience shows that only when society and government form an alliance can capital be regulated. Once the government is weakened (not to mention overthrown), capital begins to dominate society and government.