Democratizing or Reconfiguring Predatory Autocracy? Myths and Realities in Africa Today: Myths and Realities in Africa Today

Chapter Eleven - Towards Social Democracy in Africa

Chapter Eleven Towards Social Democracy in Africa Social democracy, historically, is a term that has been used by individuals on both the far and moderate left to describe their beliefs, but in recent years the latter have embraced the term almost exclusively (indeed radical left-wing critics often use the term disparagingly). For many adherents, the term “social democracy” is interchangeable with the term “democratic socialism”. By the beginning of the 20th century, workers in many industrial countries had acquired the vote and the right to organize into unions and parties. Many socialists were thus led to believe that the working class, the largest group in modern society, could increasingly direct the STATE towards abolishing POVERTY, inequality and class as well as gender exploitation, i.e., capitalism could be transformed through legislation. What has this got to do with Africa, whose states are basically client collaborators to transnational capital? During the Davie Lecture, University of Cape Town, May 1997, Noam Chomsky said that freedom without opportunity is a devil’s gift, and the refusal to provide such opportunities is criminal. The fate of the more vulnerable in Africa offers a sharp measure of the distance from here to something that might be called “civilization.” As he spoke, 1000 children were dying from easily preventable disease, and almost twice that many women were dying or suffering serious disability in pregnancy or childbirth for lack of simple remedies and care. UNICEF (1996 and 1997) estimated that to overcome such tragedies, and to ensure universal access to basic social services, would require a quarter of the annual military expenditures of the “developing countries,” about 10 percent of U.S. military spending. Is there a solution to the crisis within the existing exploitative, oppressive framework? No! What will the post-neoliberal world look like? One possibility is a return to social democratic capitalism. Between 1950 and 1973, with social democratic institutions such as big government, Keynesianism, class compromise, redistribution of income and wealth, and regulation of capital, world capitalism 66 Democratizing or Reconfiguring Predatory Autocracy? Myths and Realities in Africa Today experienced the great “golden age.” For a quarter of a century, the leading capitalist countries enjoyed rapid economic growth, low unemployment, rising living standards, and social stability. Peripheral and semiperipheral states were able to make some progress in national development through “import-substitution” or “socialist” industrialization. Could a return to social democracy bring about a return of the great golden age? The inherent contradictions of capitalism did not stop developing under social democratic capitalism. Within certain limits, the social democratic institutions helped to alleviate the class conflicts and maintain a relatively high level of aggregate demand. Under certain historical conditions, these institutions were consistent with high and stable profit rates and facilitated rapid capital accumulation. However, as these institutions existed and operated, they tended to create new conditions that increasingly undermined worldwide accumulation. The changing balance of power between capital and labour, and between the core and the periphery resulted in the worldwide decline of profitability and contributed to the accumulation crisis in the 1960s and the 1970s.1 It was exactly in response to the crisis of social democratic capitalism that the global ruling elites started to pursue neoliberalism as the “solution” to the crisis. Suppose the current crisis is to be resolved on a social democratic basis. National regulations of trade and capital flows are reintroduced, labour and financial markets are reregulated, income and wealth are significantly redistributed in egalitarian ways, and the public sector is again to play a significant role in the economy. Will these changes be sufficient to bring about a new golden age? Without changing the fundamental institutions of capitalism, what is to prevent the inherent contradictions of capitalism from developing? What is to prevent the “new” social democratic capitalism from entering into a new accumulation crisis? The establishment of social democratic capitalism could not take place without at least a partial political victory of the working classes and African peasantry. But if that turns out to be the case, the working classes in different parts of the world will demand not only restoring their historical social and economic rights and consolidating their existing rights, but also greatly expanding these 67 Towards Social Democracy in Africa rights. How can these new social reforms be financed? If they have to be financed by additional taxes on capitalist profits, can the revival of social democracy survive the...