The Changing Military Industrial Complex
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Building a Movement in the Non-Profit Industrial Complex
Building A Movement In The Non-Profit Industrial Complex Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Michelle Oyakawa Graduate Program in Sociology The Ohio State University 2017 Dissertation Committee: Korie Edwards, Advisor Andrew Martin Steve Lopez Copyrighted by Michelle Mariko Oyakawa 2017 Abstract Today, democracy in the United States is facing a major challenge: Wealthy elites have immense power to influence election outcomes and policy decisions, while the political participation of low-income people and racial minorities remains relatively low. In this context, non-profit social movement organizations are one of the key vehicles through which ordinary people can exercise influence in our political system and pressure elite decision-makers to take action on matters of concern to ordinary citizens. A crucial fact about social movement organizations is that they often receive significant financial support from elites through philanthropic foundations. However, there is no research that details exactly how non-profit social movement organizations gain resources from elites or that analyzes how relationships with elite donors impact grassroots organizations’ efforts to mobilize people to fight for racial and economic justice. My dissertation aims to fill that gap. It is an ethnographic case study of a multiracial statewide organization called the Ohio Organizing Collaborative (OOC) that coordinates progressive social movement organizations in Ohio. Member organizations work on a variety of issues, including ending mass incarceration, environmental justice, improving access to early childhood education, and raising the minimum wage. In 2016, the OOC registered over 155,000 people to vote in Ohio. -
Dynamics of Financialization After the Crisis? How Finance (Still) Gets Its Way
Dynamics of financialization after the crisis? How finance (still) gets its way Julie Froud Manchester Business School and Centre for Research in Socio‐Cultural Change (CRESC), UK Outline • Starting point: finance is not humbled, (despite current crisis, the resulting bailouts and large losses imposed in terms of foregone GDP and imposed austerity). But growing concerns about ‘imbalance’ • Explaining this as a story about power and elites, mainly about the UK (noting specificities of financialization), but with relevance elsewhere, by: a) looking back at C Wright Mills and b) moving forward with the finance and point value complex. • The aim is to highlight the pervasive, programmatic power of finance. To understand financialization, we have to understand many things. So, a contribution to a collective endeavour. (1) Finance unreformed The story so far… Unreformed finance a) investment banking • Half‐hearted reform in UK: limited structural change ‐> no major bank break‐up; ring fencing of investment banking, not separation; few constraints on long chain leveraged finance; (still) low capital requirements; bonuses survive (eg HSBC Feb 2014) and redundancies postponed • Scandals continue: Libor, exchange rate fixing (even after Libor) Collusion, manipulation of rates ‐> profit and bonus implications; Barclays Capital as ‘loose federation of money making franchises’ (not the ‘go‐to bank’). Finance Minister, George Osborne on Libor crisis: ‘we know what went wrong’…. No interest in learning. Unreformed finance b) retail banking • Half‐hearted reform in UK: more competition via ‘challenger banks’… (but not tackling business model, where RoE targets in mid‐teens drive mis‐selling eg Jenkins at Barclays: 15% RoE target in retail) • Scandals continue: ever more mis‐selling. -
Hustle and Flow: Prison Privatization Fueling the Prison Industrial Complex
FULCHER FINAL (DO NOT DELETE) 6/10/2012 2:43 PM Hustle and Flow: Prison Privatization Fueling the Prison Industrial Complex Patrice A. Fulcher* ABSTRACT The Prison Industrial Complex (“PIC”) is a profiteering system fueled by the economic interests of private corporations, federal and state correctional institutions, and politicians. The PIC grew from ground fertilized by an increase in the U.S. prison population united with an economically depressed market, stretched budgets, and the ineffective allocation of government resources. The role of the federal, state, and local governments in the PIC has been to allocate resources. This is the first of a series of articles exploring issues surrounding the PIC, including (1) prison privatization, (2) outsourcing the labor of prisoners for profit, and (3) constitutional misinterpretations. The U.S. prison population increased in the 1980s, in part, because of harsh drug and sentencing laws and the racial profiling of Blacks. When faced with the problem of managing additional inmates, U.S. correctional institutions looked to the promise of private prison companies to house and control inmates at reduced costs. The result was the privatization of prisons, private companies handling the management of federal and state inmates. This Article addresses how the privatization of prisons helped to grow the PIC and the two ways in which governments’ expenditure of funds to private prison companies amount to an inefficient allocation of resources: (1) it creates an incentive to increase the prison population, which led to a monopoly and manipulation of the market by Correction Corporation of America (“CCA”) and The GEO Group, Inc. -
The Origins of the Permanent War Economy
SUBSCRIBE NOW AND RECEIVE CRISIS AND LEVIATHAN* FREE! “The Independent Review does not accept “The Independent Review is pronouncements of government officials nor the excellent.” conventional wisdom at face value.” —GARY BECKER, Noble Laureate —JOHN R. MACARTHUR, Publisher, Harper’s in Economic Sciences Subscribe to The Independent Review and receive a free book of your choice* such as the 25th Anniversary Edition of Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government, by Founding Editor Robert Higgs. This quarterly journal, guided by co-editors Christopher J. Coyne, and Michael C. Munger, and Robert M. Whaples offers leading-edge insights on today’s most critical issues in economics, healthcare, education, law, history, political science, philosophy, and sociology. Thought-provoking and educational, The Independent Review is blazing the way toward informed debate! Student? Educator? Journalist? Business or civic leader? Engaged citizen? This journal is for YOU! *Order today for more FREE book options Perfect for students or anyone on the go! The Independent Review is available on mobile devices or tablets: iOS devices, Amazon Kindle Fire, or Android through Magzter. INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE, 100 SWAN WAY, OAKLAND, CA 94621 • 800-927-8733 • [email protected] PROMO CODE IRA1703 The Origins of the Permanent War Economy F THOMAS K. DUNCAN AND CHRISTOPHER J. COYNE he military-industrial complex that Dwight D. Eisenhower (1961) warned of has become a vast network of expanded political power, enlarged profits, and T increased state authority. Indeed, national security, in terms of dollars, men- tality, and interests, has bled into nearly every aspect of American life (Turse 2008), into nearly every federal department (Mueller and Stewart 2011), into domestic and international humanitarian efforts (Coyne 2008, 2013), and even into domestic policing (Hall and Coyne 2013). -
War Economy and the New Wars: a Case Study of Kosovo’S War Economy
War Economy and the New Wars: A case study of Kosovo’s War Economy Ecaterina Ciutac Student Number: 104517008 MA Governance, Leadership and Democracy Studies Supervisor Prof.ª Doutora Mónica Dias Date: 27/09/2019 Acknowledgements During the first year of the course of M.A. Governance, Leadership & Democracy Studies, I had the pleasure to attend the classes of Professor Mónica Dias. It was from her classes and her way of teaching that brought inspiration to the topic of this thesis. Thanks to Professor Mónica’s attention, guidance, and dedication in supervising the project and thesis, it was possible to accomplish this important step in my academic life. Abstract Word Count Dissertation: 28 658 Word count abstract: 334 This dissertation aims to study the relationship between the economic dimension of “new wars” and the perpetuation of violence. The analysis on the economic dimension of “new wars” shows that it is an essential aspect to understand in an interconnected and globalized setting because there are impacts on the state-building and on the social and political spheres. The main question of the thesis is going to analyze the main aspects of the war economy in Kosovo. One of the hypotheses holds that in contemporary wars, the state suffers increased levels of violence, which leads to a non-ending cycle of internal crisis, because of the economic aspect of war. The goal is to explore this hypothesis and to analyze the nature and characteristics of the war economy as well as, to understand how the perpetuation of violence can easily spread on a transnational level. -
Austrian Theorizing: Recalling the Foundations
AUSTRIAN THEORIZING: RECALLING THE FOUNDATIONS WALTER BLOCK t is a pleasure to reply to Caplan’s (1999) critique of Austrian economics. Unlike other such recent reactions1 this one shows evidence of great familiarity with the IAustrian (praxeological) literature, and a deep interest in its analytical foundations. Thus, Caplan correctly identifies the works of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard as the core of what sets Austrian economics apart from the neoclassical mainstream. And he insightfully relegates the writings of F.A. Hayek and Israel M. Kirzner to an intermediate position between the praxeological and neoclassical approaches.2 We shall defend this core of Austrian economics against Caplan’s criticisms, and show that, just as in the case of these others, his arrows fall wide of their mark. It is nevertheless instructive to highlight his errors. The benefits are a better understanding of the Austrian School, and greater insight into neoclassical short- comings. This article follows the outline of Caplan (1999) and is divided into the same four sections as his: first an introduction, second, consumer theory, third, welfare economics, and fourth, a conclusion. WALTER BLOCK is economics department chairman and professor at the University of Cen- tral Arkansas, Conway. The author would like to thank Guido Hülsmann and Michael Levin for helpful comments to an earlier draft of this paper. He would also like to thank an anony- mous referee who made no fewer than seven suggestions, all of which were incorporated into this paper, much to its improvement. All remaining errors are, of course, my responsibil- ity. 1See in this regard Rosen (1997), Tullock (1998), Timberlake (1987), Demsetz (1997), Yeager (1987) and Krugman (1998). -
Military-Industrial Complex: Eisenhower's Unsolved Problem
MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX: EISENHOWER'S UNSOLVED PROBLEM by )/lrS THOMAS JENKINS BADGER Bo A., George Washington University., 1949 A MASTER'S THESIS submitted fn pa 1 ful 111b nt of the .'_-. -.- ... — -\-C MASTER OF ARTS Department of Political Science KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Manhattan, Kansas 1965 Approved by: ~ Major Professor XOOl 1105 6<3 ACKHQWLEOGEMENT TO: Dr. Louis Douglas for suggesting the subject, offering continuous encouragement and valuable advice, and insisting upon a measure of scholar- ship. Or. Robin Higham for reading the manuscript, professional advice and suggestions. Dr. Joseph Hajda, who as the Major Professor, was responsible for the thesis and who tirelessly read and reread drafts, and who patiently pointed out weaknesses needing amplification, correction, or deletion. It Is not Intended to Indicate that these gentlemen concur with the entire thesis. They don't. The errors and misconceptions In the thesis are mine as well as the conclusions but without their assistance the thesis would be unacceptable as a scholarly work. If I could have followed their advice more Intelligently the thesis would be considerably Improved, but whatever merit this work may have the credit belongs to them. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION of the United One hundred and sixty-eight years ago, the first President had served so States presented his farewell address to the country which he from a divided well and which he, as much as any other person, had changed Washington's group of self-oriented states Into a cohesive nation. George permanent alliances principal advice to this young nation was to stay clear of west to settle} with foreign nations. -
Healthcare in the Usa: Understanding the Medical-Industrial Complex
B3 | HEALTHCARE IN THE USA: UNDERSTANDING THE MEDICAL-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX Introduction In the mid-1960s a group of progressively-minded New York activists came together to found the Health Policy Advisory Center or Health/PAC as it came to be called It was a time of intense activism in New York as poor communi- ties took to the streets demanding improved services and were emboldened to actually take over Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx (known locally as ‘the butcher shop’) 1 Following a 1967 ‘exposé-analysis’ written by one of the authors of this chapter (Robb Burlage), Health/PAC began publishing a monthly bulletin offering a ‘New Left’ perspective on health Three years later in 1970, John and Barbara Ehrenreich published a book-length critique of US healthcare based on the Health/PAC article, titled The American Health Empire. The medical–industrial complex In November 1969, Health/PAC first used the phrase ‘medical–industrial complex’ (MIC) as a way of characterizing the US health system The term was a spin-off from President Eisenhower’s farewell address in 1961, during which he discussed the dangers of the “military–industrial complex” Health/PAC’s use of the term ‘MIC’ incorporated the perception that healthcare was moving away from a system built on individual doctors and small community hospitals; healthcare was becoming more and more the ‘business’ of large academic centres that Health/PAC characterized as medical empires These medical empires were constructed around a central (private, academic) hospital and outlying satellite -
The Buildup of the German War Economy: the Importance of the Nazi-Soviet Economic Agreements of 1939 and 1940 by Samantha Carl I
The Buildup of the German War Economy: The Importance of the Nazi-Soviet Economic Agreements of 1939 and 1940 By Samantha Carl INTRODUCTION German-Soviet relations in the early half of the twentieth century have been marked by periods of rapprochement followed by increasing tensions. After World War I, where the nations fought on opposite sides, Germany and the Soviet Union focused on their respective domestic problems and tensions began to ease. During the 1920s, Germany and the Soviet Union moved toward normal relations with the signing of the Treaty of Rapallo in 1922.(1) Tensions were once again apparent after 1933, when Adolf Hitler gained power in Germany. Using propaganda and anti-Bolshevik rhetoric, Hitler depicted the Soviet Union as Germany's true enemy.(2) Despite the animosity between the two nations, the benefits of trade enabled them to maintain economic relations throughout the inter-war period. It was this very relationship that paved the way for the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 1939 and the subsequent outbreak of World War II. Nazi-Soviet relations on the eve of the war were vital to the war movement of each respective nation. In essence, the conclusion of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact on August 23, 1939 allowed Germany to augment its war effort while diminishing the Soviet fear of a German invasion.(3) The betterment of relations was a carefully planned program in which Hitler sought to achieve two important goals. First, he sought to prevent a two-front war from developing upon the invasion of Poland. Second, he sought to gain valuable raw materials that were necessary for the war movement.(4) The only way to meet these goals was to pursue the completion of two pacts with the Soviet Union: an economic agreement as well as a political one. -
The Place of the Prison in the New Government of Poverty Loïc
The Place of the Prison in the New Government of Poverty Loïc Wacquant * More than the specifics of statistical figures and trends, it is the deep-seated logic of this swing from the social to the penal that one must grasp here. Far from contradicting the neoliberal project of deregulation and decay of the public sector, the irresistible rise of the U.S. penal state constitutes, as it were, its negative — in the sense of obverse but also of revelator — since it manifests the implementation of a policy of criminalization of poverty that is the indispensable complement to the imposition of precarious and underpaid wage labor as civic obligation for those locked at the bottom of the class and caste structure, as well as the redeployment of social- welfare programs in a restrictive and punitive sense that is concomitant with it. At the time of its institutionalization in the United States of the mid-nineteenth century, “imprisonment was above all a method aiming at the control of deviant and dependent populations,” and inmates were mainly poor people and European immigrants recently arrived in the New World.1 Nowadays, the carceral apparatus of the United States fills an analogous role with respect to those groups rendered superfluous or incongruous by the twofold restructuring of the wage labor relation and state charity: the declining fractions of the working class and poor blacks at the core of formerly industrial cities. In so doing, it has regained a central place in the system of the instruments for the government of poverty, at the crossroads of the deskilled labor market, the collapsing urban ghetto, and social-welfare services “reformed” with a view to buttressing the discipline of desocialized wage work. -
The Party-State in China's Military-Industrial Complex: Implications for US National Security
Testimony before the U.S.- China Economic and Security Review Commission Hearing on "U.S. Investment in China's Capital Markets and Military-Industrial Complex" The Party-State in China’s Military-Industrial Complex: Implications for U.S. National Security Jason Arterburn Program Director, the Center for Advanced Defense Studies Friday, March 19, 2021 [Type here] US-China Economic Security Review Testimony Introduction China’s domestic political economy exposes the United States to national security risks that our regulatory systems are not well equipped to address. China’s commercial system blurs public and private distinctions, which have become even less meaningful under General Secretary Xi Jinping as the party-state has become resurgent in the commercial sector. While the U.S. policymaking community has largely acknowledged the risks of U.S. exposure to China’s military- industrial base, our regulatory community still faces challenges in how to identify and mitigate risks. This is largely because “the analytical frameworks that many of us are using to understand China’s economy are stuck in past paradigms” that do not reflect the “entirely new political- economic order” that China’s system has produced as both an emergent and intentional phenomenon.1 Experts like James Mulvenon, Anna Puglisi, William Hannas, Didi Kirsten Tatlow, and others have previously produced extensive analyses of China’s technology acquisition ambitions and military-civil fusion system, which have provided the policymaking community with a comprehensive overview of China’s technology acquisition system and its changes over the last decade. In this testimony, I seek to complement their work by contextualizing China’s military-industrial base against the backdrop of recent changes in China’s political economy, with the goal of developing a framework that policymakers and the business community can use to mitigate national security risk as General Secretary Xi Jinping continues to pursue illiberal governance reforms. -
WHY COMPETITION in the POLITICS INDUSTRY IS FAILING AMERICA a Strategy for Reinvigorating Our Democracy
SEPTEMBER 2017 WHY COMPETITION IN THE POLITICS INDUSTRY IS FAILING AMERICA A strategy for reinvigorating our democracy Katherine M. Gehl and Michael E. Porter ABOUT THE AUTHORS Katherine M. Gehl, a business leader and former CEO with experience in government, began, in the last decade, to participate actively in politics—first in traditional partisan politics. As she deepened her understanding of how politics actually worked—and didn’t work—for the public interest, she realized that even the best candidates and elected officials were severely limited by a dysfunctional system, and that the political system was the single greatest challenge facing our country. She turned her focus to political system reform and innovation and has made this her mission. Michael E. Porter, an expert on competition and strategy in industries and nations, encountered politics in trying to advise governments and advocate sensible and proven reforms. As co-chair of the multiyear, non-partisan U.S. Competitiveness Project at Harvard Business School over the past five years, it became clear to him that the political system was actually the major constraint in America’s inability to restore economic prosperity and address many of the other problems our nation faces. Working with Katherine to understand the root causes of the failure of political competition, and what to do about it, has become an obsession. DISCLOSURE This work was funded by Harvard Business School, including the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness and the Division of Research and Faculty Development. No external funding was received. Katherine and Michael are both involved in supporting the work they advocate in this report.