From Socialism to Peripheral Capitalism
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University of Ljubljana University Paris-13 SPC Faculty of Arts Centre d’Économie de Paris-13 ANA PODVRŠIČ FROM SOCIALISM TO PERIPHERAL CAPITALISM: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE DOUBLE TRANSITION IN SLOVENIA PhD Dissertation Ljubljana, 2018 University of Ljubljana University Paris-13 SPC Faculty of Arts École doctorale Érasme Interdisciplinary doctoral programme Centre d’Économie de Paris-13 in the Humanities and Social Sciences (UMR CNRS 7234-CEPN) Field of Study: Sociology of Culture PhD DISSERTATION presented by ANA PODVRŠIČ in order to become Doktorica znanosti Univerze v Ljubljani and Docteur en sciences économiques de l’Université Paris-13 DEFENDED ON 13TH APRIL 2018 FROM SOCIALISM TO PERIPHERAL CAPITALISM: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE DOUBLE TRANSITION IN SLOVENIA DU SOCIALISME AU CAPITALISME PÉRIPHÉRIQUE : L’ÉCONOMIE POLITIQUE DE LA DOUBLE TRANSITION EN SLOVÉNIE IZ SOCIALIZMA V PERIFERNI KAPITALIZEM: POLITIČNA EKONOMIJA DVOJNE TRANZICIJE V SLOVENIJI Supervisors Rastko MOČNIK, Cédric DURAND, Miroslav STANOJEVIĆ PhD Defence Committee Reporters Laura Horn, Roskilde University, associate professor Andreas Nölke, Goethe University Frankfurt Am Main, full professor Examiner Caroline Vincensini, ENS Paris-Saclay, assistant professor President Aleksander Panjek, University of Primorska, full professor Supervisors Rastko Močnik, University of Ljubljana, full professor Cédric Durand, University Paris-13 SPC, associate professor Acknowledgements In writing this thesis, I was fortunate to benefit from a large scholarly, personal and moral network. I would first like to thank my supervisors: Rastko Močnik for his ongoing multifaceted support in my intellectual/academic endeavours over the last ten years, as well as for enabling me to acquire the status of young researcher; Cédric Durand for encouraging me to continue my studies in France and for his outstanding supervision of this project; Miroslav Stanojević for allowing me to became a member of his research laboratory and for his continued support of my research. The doctoral studies has brought two amazing friends into my life. Without Lidija Krienzer-Radojević and Pauline Debanes I doubt I could have completed this thesis. They were the inexhaustible source of precious comments, of everyday encouragement and moments of joy. I am also grateful to Joachim Becker for the many discussions we had, for reading parts of my thesis, and providing crucial advice. I would also like to thank Dóra Piroska for helpful suggestions on earlier chapter drafts and Anita Pelle for all her encouragement. I also wish to thank Primož Krašovec for all our debates, Jernej Kosi for reading parts of my thesis and Lukas Schmidt for sharing his knowledge on dependentistas with me. I am very grateful to be able to work in such stimulating environments as the CEPN and the MSH-Paris Nord with their PhD student groups. For transforming periods of doubt and everyday writing into enjoyable moments of heated debates, relaxing fun, and mutual support, I want to thank Serge Herbillon-Leprince, Barbara Westerveld, Louison Cahen-Fourot, Ludwig List, Chiara Calzolaio, Josselin Tricou, Irène Pochetti, Benjamin Bürbaumer and Hassina Merdjane. I am particularly grateful to Ana Plvan for all our walks and talks and discoveries of Paris. It would have been impossible for me to complete this thesis under the co-tutelle agreement without the patience and help of Tanja Hribar, Ana Ravnik, Doris Sattler, Slobodanka Camilti and Judita Goričar from the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Social Sciences, to whom I express my sincere thanks. With the help of Jasna Jugović my ongoing trips between Paris and Ljubljana became financially possible. Writing in English was a challenge on its own. Among many proofreaders who helped me to face this, I owe, however, a special debt to Martin Grad and Julia Cooper – for their kind support and struggling with me until the very end. All the remaining mistakes are mine. Finally, during the intense months before the submission, my mother's cooking truly saved the day. Mum, really, thanks for everything! iii SUMMARY Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. iii Summary ................................................................................................................................................. iv Figures and Tables ............................................................................................................................... viii Abbreviations............................................................................................................................................ x INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1 1. VARIETIES OF CAPITALISM GO EASTWARD ............................................................. 16 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 16 1.1. Varieties of post-socialist capitalism ................................................................................ 18 1.1.1. Elaborating an alternative to the neoclassical paradigm .................................................. 18 1.1.2. Slovenia in typologies of post-socialist capitalisms ........................................................ 22 1.2. Beyond institutional analysis............................................................................................. 28 1.2.1. Limits to institutional determinism .................................................................................. 28 1.2.2. Putting post-socialist change in historical time and space ............................................... 32 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 36 2. EMERGENCE OF CAPITALISM IN THE POST-SOCIALIST REGION: NEOLIBERAL PRIMITIVE ACCUMULATION ............................................................................................... 40 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 40 2.1. Towards a class-relational and global approach to primitive accumulation ................ 42 2.1.1. The groundwork of the analysis of ‘So-called primitive accumulation’ ......................... 42 2.1.2. Primitive accumulation as a preliminary accumulation of wealth within the expanding trade linkages ................................................................................................................................ 45 2.1.3. Primitive accumulation as a conflictual reshuffling of social structure and property relations ........................................................................................................................................ 47 2.1.4. Primitive accumulation as a state-led process within changing international conditions 49 Recapitulation ............................................................................................................................... 51 2.2. Mechanisms and conditions of primitive accumulation in the neoliberal period......... 53 2.2.1. Idyllic methods of accumulation by dispossession .......................................................... 54 2.2.2. The 1980s debt crisis and the contradictions of socialist regimes ................................... 57 2.2.3. Integrating socialist states into the global capitalism project .......................................... 60 Recapitulation ............................................................................................................................... 63 iv 3. INTERNATIONAL INSERTION OF POST-SOCIALIST ECONOMIES: DEPENDENT INTEGRATION OF POST-SOCIALIST ECONOMIES ........................................................... 65 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 65 3.1. Towards a structural-historical and power relational understanding of dependency 66 3.1.1. ECLA holist structuralism, core-periphery paradigm and trade asymmetries ................. 67 3.1.2. Asymmetrical productive capital flows, socio-political interplay and dependent development .................................................................................................................................. 69 3.1.3. Neoliberal re-regulations of financial markets and (dependent) financialisation ............ 73 Recapitulation ............................................................................................................................... 76 3.2. The European integration in the making of global capitalism ...................................... 77 3.2.1. Ordoliberal underpinnings in line with the US informal empire ..................................... 77 3.2.2. Neoliberal makeover with the single market and the euro .............................................. 80 3.2.3. Eastward enlargement: a mechanism for promoting foreign capital and neoliberal depoliticisation of a domestic class rule ....................................................................................... 83 Recapitulation ............................................................................................................................... 87 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................