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Re: NAFTA, Capitalism and Alternatives, VII
Harry is right that neoliberalism is a subset of capitalism. Those are
abstractions. The problem is, can we equate the apparent neolibiral
initiatives of De la Madrid and Salinas with a neoliberalized Mexican
economy. I think the answer is no. Some of the recent policies have
been neoliberal in the sense of inviting privitizations and foreign
investment, but in terms of the larger, more important, restructuring of
the Mexican system, its internal functioning, then neoliberal reform has
not been carried out. Here is the crux of the issue: Mexico cannot be
critiqued effectively in terms of anti-neoliberal language because the
Mexican system, the structure of society Mexicans live in, and the
relations between state and society, are not a product of neoliberalism.
The authoritarian state adapts to foreign participation in the market and
to neoliberal initiatives without loosening traditional restraints on
ordinary people who want the market to provide benefits to them.
The PRI is not going to reform itself. The entire system is rotten to
the core. Salinas and Zedillo should not be the scapegoats for the
failures of the Mexican Revolution, nor should Mexico's autocrats escape
our scrutiny even as we remain skeptical that capitalism might function
better in Mexico under changed circumstances.
Victor Story
Kutztown U.
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