DOCSLIB.ORG

Michael Mcdermott

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Michael Mcdermott LANDSCAPES AND THE MACHINE: ADDRESSING WICKED VALUATION PROBLEMS WHEN NORTH, SOUTH, EAST AND WEST MEET A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree Doctor of Philosophy by Michael McDermott Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building University of Technology, Sydney Supervisors: Associate Professor Jason Prior and Professor Spike Boydell 2015 Landscapes and the Machine: Addressing Wicked Valuation Problems when North, South, East and West Meet. i ABSTRACT This thesis is about engaging with the dynamic relationship between “landscapes”, “land tenure”, and the “machine”. The first term can be so broad as to mean every process and thing encountered, the second means the way that land is held by a person or group of persons, and the third means things both put together and used by humans to fulfil their wants and needs from the landscape. As a professional valuer I have been traditionally trained to engage at arms-length with the normative behaviour of persons or groups at the intersection of these three concepts, wherein those people and groups were willing but not compelled to engage. Such traditional valuation approaches are increasingly recognised as being insufficient to address wicked valuation problems of the diverse peoples and groups that inhabit the globe from North, South, East to West. This thesis develops a means of engaging with these wicked valuation problems in a suitably knowledgeable and prudent way. To do so the thesis adopts an exploratory approach guided by Whitehead’s process philosophy injunction of a creative advance into novelty. This approach is enacted through a range of data collection and analysis methods. Autoethnography is used to draw on knowledge and experience from over the past 40 years in land valuation in Africa and the Asia-Pacific, whilst documentary analysis is used to draw in the views of other valuation practitioners and scholars who are becoming increasingly aware of the need to develop ways to adapt land valuation processes to the complexity of our contemporary landscapes. These two threads are woven together as I discuss my professional career in valuing real property rights, and the effects such rights have had on the peoples in countries that I have travelled through since first qualifying as a valuer. Drawing on lessons that emerge from this reflective journey, and through a series of workshops in different countries, I develop and pilot a tool I call “HVN↔HBA”, which is specifically designed to address wicked valuation problems through engagement with small groups, particularly, but not exclusively, value juries. Landscapes and the Machine: Addressing Wicked Valuation Problems when North, South, East and West Meet. ii FRAMING QUOTATIONS “All conduct that is not simply either blindly impulsive or mechanically routine seems to involve valuations” (Dewey 1981, p.3). “What we call land is an element of nature inextricably interwoven with man’s institutions. To isolate it and form a market out of it was perhaps the weirdest of all the undertakings of our ancestors 尀 And yet to separate man from land and organize society in such a way as to be subject to the requirements of a real estate market was a vital part of the Utopian concept of a market economy.” (Polanyi 1944, p. 178). “We need a new way of thinking, one that tightly links the human-made world of economics and politics with the natural world of climate and biodiversity and with the designed world of 21st century technology.” (Sachs 2015) “Property rights serve human values. They are recognized to that end, and are limited by it.” (Weintraub, C.J. in State vs. Shack). “When it is associated with processes which are beneficial, or which at the worst are not actually injurious to the commonwealth, then property will be unmolested; but when it is associated with ideas of wrong and of unfairness, with processes of restriction and monopoly, and other forms of injury to the community, then 尀 property will be assailed and will be endangered.” Winston Churchill, Liberalism and the Social Problem (Churchill 1909, pp. 318-319). “He’s all right. He’s an engineer. Wu’s the same. They’re both technicians and they don’t have intelligence. They have what I call ‘thintelligence’. They see the immediate situation. They think narrowly and call it ‘being focussed’. They don’t see the surround. They don’t see the consequences.” The Chaos Theoretician character Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park (Crichton 1991, p. 238). Landscapes and the Machine: Addressing Wicked Valuation Problems when North, South, East and West Meet. iii Table of Contents 1. Framing the Thesis ............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 1.2. Problem Statement ........................................................................................................ 20 1.3. Background to the Research ......................................................................................... 24 1.4. Research Problem, Propositions/Research Issues and Contributions ........................... 27 1.5. The Submission of this Thesis ...................................................................................... 31 1.6. Justification for the Research ........................................................................................ 38 1.7. Methodology ................................................................................................................. 46 1.8. Outline of the Report .................................................................................................... 50 1.9. Definitions / Explanations of Key Terms ..................................................................... 52 1.10 Study Limitations and Research Suggestions .............................................................. 67 1.11 CHAPTER SUMMARY AND THE WAY FORWARD ............................................ 69 2. The Narrative Begins: Gestating HIDEGRE BIES ADALAS ........................................ 71 2.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 71 2.2. The Turning Point ......................................................................................................... 71 2.3. My Back Story .............................................................................................................. 71 2.3.1. Childhood ............................................................................................................... 72 2.3.2. Young Adulthood................................................................................................... 78 2.3.3. Breaking Free ......................................................................................................... 85 2.3.4. Settling Down ...................................................................................................... 104 2.4. CHAPTER SUMMARY AND THE WAY FORWARD ........................................... 108 3. Welcome to Swaziland .................................................................................................. 110 3.1. The Objective of this Chapter ..................................................................................... 110 3.2. The Narrative Continues ............................................................................................. 110 3.3. The Gulf between Swazi Nation and Title Deed Land ............................................... 116 Landscapes and the Machine: Addressing Wicked Valuation Problems when North, South, East and West Meet. iv 3.4. Appointed as National Land Policy Facilitator ........................................................... 117 3.5. Parallel Personal Changes ........................................................................................... 117 3.6. Differentiating from Wilber ........................................................................................ 121 3.7. CHAPTER SUMMARY AND THE WAY FORWARD ........................................... 125 4. Off to Vanuatu back to Swaziland ................................................................................. 127 4.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 127 4.2. Vanuatu ....................................................................................................................... 127 4.3. Back to Swaziland....................................................................................................... 129 4.4. Darwin......................................................................................................................... 129 4.5. Palestine ...................................................................................................................... 129 4.6. Indonesia ..................................................................................................................... 130 4.7. Vietnam ....................................................................................................................... 131 4.8. Timor Leste ................................................................................................................. 131 4.9. Pakistan ....................................................................................................................... 133
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Mr Trumble.Pdf
    REVIEW OF EXHIBITIONS AND PUBLIC PROGRAMS AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIA SUBMISSION BY ANGUS TRUMBLE I wish to make the following submission in connection with DCITA’s 2003 Review of Exhibitions and Public Programs at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra. My thoughts about the NMA are largely the product of having for many years visited dozens museums all over the world, either out of interest or through my work as Curator of European Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide (1996 to 2001). However, I should also make it clear that I have had no professional contact with the NMA staff other than as an ordinary visitor, and it is in that capacity, not so much as an art museum curator, that I wish to comment on the building and aspects of the display, which I have studied carefully in the course of five visits in February and March this year. Despite the robust nature of many of my criticisms, I should say that I welcome the long-awaited arrival of the NMA. I believe it has a vital role to play in the cultural life of the nation, and the many problems that it must now solve are no more than temporary setbacks. None, apart from the terrible building, is insoluble, and even the building can be improved, I think, beyond measure. The architecture The design of the new NMA building is very poor and will not, I think, serve the long-term exhibition needs of the NMA. Nor will it open up new possibilities for public programming in the long term.
    [Show full text]
  • Political Economy – a Theoretical and Methodological Framework for Identifying Main Trends in Social Entrepreneurship Development
    SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT DOI: 10.15838/esc.2018.4.58.15 UDC 330.354, LBC 65.053 © Pavlov R.N. Political Economy – a Theoretical and Methodological Framework for Identifying Main Trends in Social Entrepreneurship Development Ruslan N. Pavlov Central Economic and Mathematical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences 47, Nakhimovsky Avenue, Moscow, 117418, Russian Federation Е-mail: [email protected] Abstract. The paper discusses some features of the source of social entrepreneurship as a new form of business organization, aimed at implementing social objectives in the context of strengthening neoliberal trends in economic policy and economic theory, rather than at maximizing the owners’ profit. It is demonstrated that, remaining within the framework of the neoliberal ideology which retains its influence in the economic science, it is impossible to create an adequate theory explaining the importance of social entrepreneurship in the context of the process of changing paradigms of economic relations, since under the influence of this ideology false stereotypes are established, which is accompanied by falsification of historical facts. In this context it seems that the methodology of political economy, taking into account the current trends in the transformation of socio-economic relations and the deviation of the trend of social development from the framework of the formally preserved, but declining neoliberal paradigm, is very popular, especially since its problem areas include issues such as the distinction between individual and social forms of production, the relations between the necessary and surplus product, the distribution of surplus value (in case of its occurrence), the issues of individualization and socialization of economic phenomena, the correlation between market and non-market production areas and distribution of the final product, the issue of recognizing the social significance of the result of individual labor.
    [Show full text]
  • Not Even Past NOT EVEN PAST
    The past is never dead. It's not even past NOT EVEN PAST Search the site ... Of How a Hopi Ancient Word Became a Famous Experimental Film Like 65 Tweet by Montserrat Madariaga The theater is at its full capacity. The musicians are in place as the orchestra conductor starts to wave his arms in time with the image on the screen. There, little red dots emerge from a black background. They slowly widen and turn into capital letters: The word KOYAANISQATSI takes over. Keyboard notes evoking a church organ underline the mystery of the term and suit the dramatic hard-edged-typography. It is a Friday afternoon, February 23, 2018, in the Bass Concert Hall of the Texas Performing Art Center of The University of Texas, at Austin. The occasion is the screening of Godfrey Reggio’s 1982 lm, accompanied by the live performance of The Philip Glass Ensemble playing its original score music. Featured for the rst time to an ample public in the 1982 New York Film Festival, Koyaanisqatsi is an audiovisual art piece without dialogue or voiceover, deprived of any explicit narrative, that is nowadays a cult classic. It opens with a shot of the Holy Ghost Panel in Horseshoe Canyon, Utah, a human trace dated between 400 AD and 1100 AD. Then, footage of imposing natural landscapes and wildlife of the United States’ Southwest is followed by images of urban spaces: construction, crowded streets, demolitions, technology of the time, and so on. The collage escalates in its pace along with the music: utes, clarinet, trombone, viola, tuba, keyboards and vocals from time to time repeat the word “koyaanisqatsi” in a low pitched ceremonial tone that creates an apocalyptic atmosphere.
    [Show full text]
  • GODFREY REGGIO (Director, Koyaanisqatsi) Is a Pioneer of a Film Form That Creates Poetic Images of Extraordinary Emotive Impact
    GODFREY REGGIO (Director, Koyaanisqatsi) is a pioneer of a film form that creates poetic images of extraordinary emotive impact. Reggio is best known for the Qatsi Trilogy – essays of image and music, speechless narrations which question the world in which we live. Born in New Orleans in 1940, Reggio entered the Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic Pontifical Order, at age 14 and remained as a monk until 1968. In 1963, he co-founded Young Citizens for Action, a community organization of juvenile street gangs. Reggio co-founded La Clinica de la Gente and La Gente, a community organizing project in Northern New Mexico’s barrios. In 1972, he co- founded the Institute for Regional Education in Santa Fe, a nonprofit organization focused on media, the arts, community organization and research. In collaboration with the New Mexico Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Reggio co- organized a multimedia public interest campaign on the invasion of privacy and the use of technology to control behavior. Reggio’s collaboration on Koyaanisqatsi with Ron Fricke (Director of Photography) and Philip Glass (Composer) gained an international audience, critical acclaim and launched the Qatsi Trilogy. Koyaanisqatsi has been played live over 200 times in venues worldwide. Reggio’s collaborations with Philip Glass, include: Koyaanisqatsi (1982), Powaqqatsi (1988), Naqoyqatsi (2002), Anima Mundi (1992), Evidence (1995) and Visitors (2013). In 1993, Reggio was invited by Luciano Benetton and Oliviero Toscani to develop a new school “to smell the future” – an enterprise of exploration and production in the arts, technology and mass media. Called Fabrica – Futuro Presente, it opened in the middle of the ‘90s in Treviso, Italy.
    [Show full text]
  • Yeats, Bloom, and the Dialectics of Theory, Criticism, and Poetry
    Yeats, Bloom, and the Dialectics of Theory, Criticism, and Poetry by Steven J. Skelley, MA ~:~.:.; .. "<f./ -, '\ .> t.(r{"ri'"'1 I ... <.. II- -. ' Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, October 1992 Acknowledgments To my supervisors, Dr. Bernard McGuirk (Hispanic Studies and Critical Theory) and Dr. David Murray (American Studies and Head of Postgraduate School of Critical Theory), lowe a great debt of gratitude for their enthusiasm for this proj ect. Their intellectual and practical support was priceless, and their cooperation with each other and with me never failed as a model of supervisorial expertise. All PhD candidates ought to be blessed with such supervision. I also wish to thank Dr. Douglas Tallack (American Studies and former Head of the School of Cri tical Theory) for his encouragement both intellectual and administrative towards the successful completion of this project. To the PhD students and to the supervisorial staff who attended work-in-progress seminars in the School of Critical Theory, and who offered so many helpful comments, suggestions, and opinions, I also give thanks. The staff of the Hallward Library must not go unmentioned, for their fine and courteous assistance throughout these four years. Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my epipsyche and muse, Hala Darwish, whose inspirational presence in my heart was, it may be said, the magic within these evasions, these wanderings . Until one day I met a star that burned Bright in the heart of my heavenly breast, And then I knew why I was who I was, And why my soul would be forever lost In the folds of her voice raging in my veins SJS, August 1992 ABSTRACT This thesis begins by showing how a strong and subtle challenge to poetry and theories of poetry has been recently argued by writers like Paul de Man and J.
    [Show full text]
  • Open Letter to WIPO Director General Dr
    Celebrating the 2017 #WorldIPDay Open Letter To WIPO Director General Dr. Francis Gurry We the undersigned are proud to celebrate World IP day with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Intellectual property (IP) rights play a crucial role in growing economies, driving innovation, and saving lives. Robust IP systems provide the greatest incentives for innovators to create the next generation of goods and services, artists to produce original works, and entrepreneurs to enter the marketplace. They also allow for the sharing of knowledge and technological advancement. Invention comes out of the shadows with good intellectual property protections. IP Rights Grow the Economy IP-intensive industries are the cornerstone of modern economies. Between the U.S. and E.U., IP- intensive industries employed between 30%-38% of their workforces—more than 127 million jobs. As a matter of fact, these industries are responsible for generating nearly 40% of the combined US & EU gross domestic products. IP-intensive industries in these economies paid workers 46% higher wages than those employed in comparable jobs in non-IP-intensive industries. Similarly, per capita income in countries with robust property right is 21 times more than per-capita income in countries with weak protections. IP Rights Drive Innovation Human ingenuity is boundless, and IP rights create an environment where human creativity can be unleashed. In 2015, a record 2.9 million new patents were filed worldwide—ranging from groundbreaking technological processes to cures of catastrophic disease to modernizations of everyday conveniences. To thrive, innovation must be protected. Enforcement of IP rights prevent production of counterfeits that undermine economic growth and finance criminal organizations.
    [Show full text]
  • Advance Program Notes Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation Philip Glass Ensemble Friday, November 1, 2013, 8 PM
    Advance Program Notes Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation Philip Glass Ensemble Friday, November 1, 2013, 8 PM These Advance Program Notes are provided online for our patrons who like to read about performances ahead of time. Printed programs will be provided to patrons at the performances. Programs are subject to change. CENTER FOR THE ARTS AT VIRGINIA TECH presents POWAQQATSI LIFE IN TRANSFORMATION The CANNON GROUP INC. A FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA and GEORGE LUCAS Presentation Music by Directed by PHILIP GLASS GODFREY REGGIO Photography by Edited by GRAHAM BERRY IRIS CAHN/ ALTON WALPOLE LEONIDAS ZOURDOUMIS Performed by PHILIP GLASS and the PHILIP GLASS ENSEMBLE conducted by Michael Riesman with the Blacksburg Children’s Chorale Patrice Yearwood, artistic director PHILIP GLASS ENSEMBLE Philip Glass, Lisa Bielawa, Dan Dryden, Stephen Erb, Jon Gibson, Michael Riesman, Mick Rossi, Andrew Sterman, David Crowell Guest Musicians: Ted Baker, Frank Cassara, Nelson Padgett, Yousif Sheronick The call to prayer in tonight’s performance is given by Dr. Khaled Gad Music Director MICHAEL RIESMAN Sound Design by Kurt Munkacsi Film Executive Producers MENAHEM GOLAN and YORAM GLOBUS Film Produced by MEL LAWRENCE, GODFREY REGGIO and LAWRENCE TAUB Production Management POMEGRANATE ARTS Linda Brumbach, Producer POWAQQATSI runs approximately 102 minutes and will be performed without intermission. SUBJECT TO CHANGE PO-WAQ-QA-TSI (from the Hopi language, powaq sorcerer + qatsi life) n. an entity, a way of life, that consumes the life forces of other beings in order to further its own life. POWAQQATSI is the second part of the Godfrey Reggio/Philip Glass QATSI TRILOGY. With a more global view than KOYAANISQATSI, Reggio and Glass’ first collaboration, POWAQQATSI, examines life on our planet, focusing on the negative transformation of land-based, human- scale societies into technologically driven, urban clones.
    [Show full text]
  • S Account of the Greek Crisis: a Self-Incrimination Pt 1
    Yanis VaroufakisâEuros"s Account of the Greek Crisis: a Self-Incrimination Pt 1 https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article5474 Yanis VaroufakisâEuros"s Account of the Greek Crisis: a Self-Incrimination Pt 1 - Features - Economic and debt crisis - Publication date: Wednesday 25 April 2018 Copyright © International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine - All rights reserved Copyright © International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine Page 1/39 Yanis VaroufakisâEuros"s Account of the Greek Crisis: a Self-Incrimination Pt 1 Proposals Doomed to Fail In his latest book, Adults in the Room [1] Yanis Varoufakis gives us his version of the events that led to the Tsipras governmentâEuros"s shameful capitulation in July 2015. It essentially analyses the period 2009-2015, though it makes incursions into earlier periods. With this voluminous work (550 pages), Yanis Varoufakis shows that he is a gifted narrator. At times he succeeds in moving the reader. His direct and vivid style makes it easy to follow events. From the authorâEuros"s demonstration, we can clearly see that his behaviour and the politico-economic orientation he defended contributed to the disaster. Yanis Varoufakis clearly claims to have played a major role in working out the strategy adopted by a handful of Syriza leaders âEuros" Alexis Tsipras, Yanis Dragasakis, and Nikkos Pappas, essentially âEuros" before their victory in the January 2015 election. Varoufakis does not plead guilty. He is convinced that had Tsipras actually taken the orientation he proposed and which Tsipras had agreed to late in 2014, the result would not have been defeat for the Greek people. Contrary to the conviction Varoufakis expresses, an attentive reading of his book leads to the conclusion that he contributed to that defeat Varoufakis explains how he gradually convinced Tsipras, Pappas, and Dragasakis not to follow the orientation adopted by Syriza in 2012, then in 2014.
    [Show full text]
  • The California Tech
    After reading the Just don't super special media guy, check out the regular one ... bother see page 4 THE CALIFORNIA TECH P ASADENA CALIFORNIA FRIDAY M ARCH 1998 RAINED? WE ARE. THIS ISSUE 100% CONTENT FREE Adam Villani: Media Guy: Armegeddon, Part /I With the Oscars comin g up on Monday, th e question is not whether the Acadcmy failed to nominate it. You can safely put your money on L.A . Titanic will dominate th e compet iti on, but by how mu ch it will dominate COl/fidel/tial, but of the nominees I would cheer for Th e Sweet Hereafter the competition. Looking at the nominations individually, Ithink Titanic and DOlil/ie Brasco. has a decent shot to win in each of it s 14 nominated categories except Cillematography- The sheer beauty of Martin Scorsesc's marv elous Besi AClress (Kale Winslet). Even if lhere's a huge backlash agai nslthis Kill/dun may beat out Titan ic here. Conn oisseurs shou ld check out gOO-pound gorill a of a movie, It 's still got Ed iti ng. Art Direction , Origi­ Maborosi for a movie expressed al most solely through its cinematogra­ nal Dramatic Score, Costum e, Original Song, and Sound pretty much phy_ wrapped up and in the bag. While I think the 14 nominations represen ted Ediling- Titanic wins, and is the best nominated. Erro l Morris' docu­ the peak of its popu larity, I think we shou ld expect to see repre se ntatives mentary Fast, Cheap. and Oul of COlllroi and Peter Greenaway's spec­ of this very popular and technicai ly outstandi ng film take th e podium tacu lar Th e Pillow Book were the true masterpieces of editing this year.
    [Show full text]
  • The Formalization of Property Rights in Emerging Markets
    COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL At the End of the Beginning: The Formalization of Property Rights in Emerging Markets J. Michael Graglia MBA/MA ’03 Columbia Business School School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University With Contributions from Elena Panaritis © 2002 by The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York. All rights reserved. CHAZEN WEB JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS FALL 2002 www.gsb.columbia.edu/chazenjournal Acknowledgments I would like to thank the Chazen Institute for the opportunity to publish this paper, Robert Wegner for countless peer revisions and Shao Ping Yu for all of her work. I am also grateful to Professor Joseph Stiglitz, for whom this paper was initially written. He asked many questions and pointed me to the answers. The paper would not have been possible at all, however, without the generosity of Elena Panaritis, who shared parts of her original work on fixed property rights and market reform. What began as a conversation about her work at the World Bank and an innocuous question about if I could write a small economics of information paper based on her work evolved into a yearlong set of information exchanges, revisions, academic arguments, a new model and more revisions. When it was first described to me, I thought I would be able to summarize the concept in a few pages. Now I realize that what Panaritis did in Peru is an elegant solution to a profoundly complex problem—and after writing at least 20 versions of this paper, I have only just begun to understand how much work this must have been.
    [Show full text]
  • Hellenic Observatory
    HELLENIC OBSERVATORY 2020-2021 NEWSLETTER Photo: © LSE/Nigel Stead Issue 19 2020-21 Newsletter EDITORIAL This last year has been extraordinary and As part of our events programme, we disturbing in so many ways. We hope that launched a separate YouTube channel for our readers and supporters are well and the Hellenic Observatory in 2020 and this that we can all look forward to a better year now hosts recordings of all our past events. ahead. The number and range of events constitutes a remarkable archive. Despite the difficult circumstances of this last year, the Hellenic Observatory has risen On the research front, the pandemic to the challenge and has managed both lockdown meant, of course, that our to sustain its activities and to innovate in researchers and visitors could not meet on various ways. I am very grateful for the campus and interact in person. We did so exceptional efforts of my colleagues in online, though, and we were pleased to host meeting these challenges – the Observatory several new visiting fellows. Our research has an amazing team. calls on Greece and on Cyprus continued to enable high quality projects on important In March 2020 we moved our public events policy challenges to be undertaken. We online. In doing so, we have been able to are grateful for the funding support offered attract larger and wider audiences. Our from the A. C. Laskarides Foundation, first online event – assessing the economic Vassilis Apostolopoulos and the Leventis impact of COVID-19 – attracted a live Foundation for these Calls. In addition, our audience of over 900.
    [Show full text]
  • Where Did the Left Go? by Serge Halimi
    Where did the left go? by Serge Halimi Le Monde Diplomatique, English Edition, November 2011 As capitalism faces the worst economic crisis since the1930s, the parties of the left are silent or embarrassed. The Occupy Wall Street protests in the US are also directed against the Street’s representatives in the Democratic Party and the White House. The protesters probably don’t know that Socialists in France still consider Barack Obama exemplary, since, unlike President Sarkozy, he had the foresight to take action against banks. Is there a misunderstanding? Those who are unwilling or unable to attack the pillars of the neoliberal order (financialisation, globalisation of movements of capital and goods) are tempted to personalise the disaster, to attribute the crisis in capitalism to poor planning or mismanagement by their political opponents. In France it’s Sarkozy, in Italy Berlusconi, in Germany Merkel, who are to blame. And elsewhere? Elsewhere, and not only in the US, political leaders long considered as models by the moderate left also face angry crowds. In Greece, the president of the Socialist International, George Papandreou, is pursuing a policy of extreme austerity: privatisations, cuts in the civil service, and delivering economic and social sovereignty to a ultra-neoliberal “troika”1 . The conduct of the Spanish, Portuguese and Slovenian governments reminds us that the term “left” is now so debased that it is no longer associated with any specific political content. The current French Socialist Party spokesman explains the impossible situation of European social democracy very clearly: in his new book Tourner la page, Benoît Hamon writes: “In the European Union, the European Socialist Party is historically associated, through the compromise linking it with Christian democracy, with the strategy of liberalising the internal market and the implications for social rights and public services.
    [Show full text]