The new feudalism: globalization, the market, and the great chain of consumption*

New Political Science

Volumn 25, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 81-97

  Duvall, Tim ^a  

^a ST JOHN'S UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 85044880035     PISSN: 07393148     EISSN: 14699931     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/0739314032000071244     Document Type: Article

References (17)

1. Friedman, Thomas. 2000. The Lexus and the Olive Tree, New York: Anchor Books.
2. Fukuyama, Francis. 2000. The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order, New York: Simon and Schuster.
3. Fukuyama, Francis. 1993. The End of History and the Last Man, New York: Avon Books.
4. Wood. Democracy and Capitalism 227–228. note 21.
5. Cox, Harvey. 1999. "The Market as God: Living in the New Dispensation,". The Atlantic Monthly, 283 (3) March: 18–23.
6. The "irrational rationality" of this phenomenon is expressed well in the opening pages of George Ritzer's The McDonaldization of Society: An Investigation into the Changing Chareacter of Contemprorary Social Life (Thousand Oaks, London and New Delhi: Pine Forge Press, 1996). Ritzer argues that contemporary social life is characterized by an adoption of the business approach of McDonald's, writ large. We see this well when we notice how convinced so many of us are that the interests of business are the interests of the masses. But we also see it when we note the tremendous value we place on efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control (see pp. 9-11 of Ritzer).
7. Deetz, Stanley A., 1992. Democracy in an Age of Corporate Colonization: Developments in Communication and the Politics of Everyday Life, ixAlbany: State University of New York Press. Of course, we must understand that the notion of the "people" was very narrowly construed. Indeed, even when we refer to the "people" today, it is difficult to demonstrate that governments concern themselves in any direct way with the public interest. Rather, the "people" still appear to be elites, most notably corporate entities. See
8. Frank, Thomas. 2000. One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy, New York: Doubleday.
9. 2000. The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, New York: Anchor Books. This perspective comes out very clearly in Thomas Friedman's book.
10. Krugman's, Paul. 2001. "Hearts and Heads,". New York Times, Reckonings Column, April 22 There, he argues that anti-globalization forces actually hurt the poor more than the globalization forces do. Indeed, globalization promises new horizons of wealth for all. Friedman made very similar pronouncements in his New York Times opinion column during the WTO protests in Seattle (1999) and during the protests at the Summit of the Americas (2001). During these latter protests, Paul Krugman (2001) staked this ground as well. Interestingly, Krugman seems to have abandoned this position since the September 11 attacks. His columns on the Enron scandals, the Bush Administration's manipulations, and the rise of plutocracy appear to run markedly counter to the positions he took on the Summit of the Americas. See
11. 2002. "The End of Middle-Class America (and the Triumph of the Plutocrats),". New York Times Magazine, October 20 Op-Ed page; and
12. Bell, Daniel. 2000. The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties, 390–392. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press.
13. Marcuse, Herbert. 1969. An Essay on Liberation, Boston: Beacon Press.
14. Dewey, John. 1991. Liberalism and Social Action, Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. [1935]
15. Polanyi, Karl. 1957. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, Boston: Beacon Press.
16. Gorz, André. 1994. Capitalism, Socialism, Ecology, Edited by: Turner, Chris. 22London and New York: Verso.
17. Boggs, Carl. 2000. The End of Politics: Corporate Power and the Decline of the Public Sphere, New York and London: Guilford Press.