DEMOCRATIC RENEWAL VERSUS NEOLIBERALISM Democratic renewal versus neoliberalism : towards empowerment and inclusion / Claudio Lara Cortés ... [et.al.] ; edición literaria a cargo de Claudio Lara Cortés y Consuelo Silva Flores. - 1a ed. - Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires : CLACSO, 2014. E-Book. - (Programa Sur-Sur ) ISBN 978-987-722-041-4 1. Democracia. 2. Neoliberalismo. I. Lara Cortés, Claudio II. Lara Cortés, Claudio , ed. lit. III. Silva Flores, Consuelo , ed. lit. CDD 321.4 Other descriptors allocated by CLACSO: Democracy / Neoliberalism / State / Civil Society / Social Change / Developments / Economy / Empowerment / Inclusion / Integration South-South Program DEMOCRATIC RENEWAL VERSUS NEOLIBERALISM TOWARDS EMPOWERMENT AND INCLUSION Sixth South-South Institute (Santiago de Chile, 2013) Claudio Lara Cortés and Consuelo Silva Flores (Editors) Prince Karakire Guma Kwame Edwin Otu Yongjie Wang Godwin Onuoha Raquel Coelho de Freitas Tiberius Barasa Emilio Jesús Legonía Córdova Habibu Yaya Bappah Daniela Perrotta Malini Chakravarty Rasel Madaha CODESRIA Deputy Executive Secretary Pablo Gentili Academic Director Fernanda Saforcada Open Acces and Dissemination Knowledge Chief Editor Lucas Sablich Art Director Marcelo Giardino Production Fluxus Estudio Cover art Ignacio Solveyra Proofreading Eugenia Cervio First edition Democratic renewal versus neoliberalism: towards empowerment and inclusion (Buenos Aires: CLACSO, december 2014) ISBN 978-987-722-041-4 © Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales Queda hecho el depósito que establece la Ley 11.723. CLACSO Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales - Conselho Latino-americano de Ciências Sociais (Latin American Council of Social Sciences) Estados Unidos 1168 | C1101AAX Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina Tel. [54 11] 4304 9145 | Fax [54 11] 4305 0875 | <[email protected]> | <www.clacso.org> Sponsored by the Swedish International Development Agency This book is available in full text on the Web Virtual Library of CLACSO <www.biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar> No reproduction in whole or part of this book, or stored in a computer system, or its transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. CODESRIA Executive Secretary Dr. Ebrima Sall Head of the Research Program Dr. Carlos Cardoso IDEAs Executive Secretary Professor Jayati Ghosh Member of Executive Committee Professor C.P. Chandrasekhar The responsibility for opinions expressed in books, articles, studies and other contributions rests solely with the signing authors, and publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Secretariat of CLACSO. INDEX Introduction Claudio Lara Cortés and Consuelo Silva Flores CIVIL SOCIETY AND SOCIAL CHANGE Prince Karakire Guma for Democratic Space in Uganda Kwame Edwin Otu Reluctantly Queer. Sassoi and the Shifting Paradigms of Masculinity and Sexual Citizenship in the Era of Neoliberal LGBTIQ Politics Yongjie Wang Impacts of Employment Growth in China’s Interior Areas on Local Rural Women STATE AND SOCIETY Godwin Onuoha Is Another Transition Possible? African Transitions to Democracy and the Limits of Praxis Raquel Coelho de Freitas Democracy and Political Movements in Latin America 81 Tiberius Barasa Towards Inclusive Public Policy Process. The Role of Non-State Actors in Public Policy Formulation and Implementation. Examples from the Private Sector in Kenya 97 Emilio Jesús Legonía Córdova Political Horizons. Indigenous Culture, Democracy and Change. An Overview of Matsés Native Community in the Peruvian Amazon 115 DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMICS Habibu Yaya Bappah Neoliberalism, Collective Self-Reliance and the Challenges of African Integration 141 Daniela Perrotta Regulatory regionalism and higher education in MERCOSUR. Fostering development or enhancing marketisation? 161 Claudio Lara Cortés and Consuelo Silva Flores Current Dilemmas in Deepening Regional Financial Integration 181 Malini Chakravarty Public Finance Policy and Inequality. A Review of the Contrasting Experiences of India and Ecuador 193 Rasel Madaha Gendered Responses and Adaptations to Changing Contexts of Development and Neoliberalism in Particular. A Case Study of Tanzanian Rural and Urban Women’s Networks 217 INTRODUCTION Claudio Lara Cortés and Consuelo Silva Flores THIS BOOK BRINGS TOGETHER articles produced by young re- searchers from Latin America, Africa and Asia as part of the 2013 edition of the South-South Institute. Through diverse theoretical and analytical perspectives, these contributions offer a set of critical views regarding certain aspects of our society that need to be transformed in the face of demands for a renovation of democracy raised by various social agents. Furthermore, these views are made on the basis of historical evi- dence within the framework of the challenges faced by the new global scenario where Southern countries gain an increasingly important role, leading to a profound rethinking of the relationship between the state and society, as well as between civil society and social change, and between economics and development. These are precisely the is- sues and problems that were the focus of the discussion in the latest edition of the South-South Institute. The main objective of the South-South Institute is to offer to the participants training opportunities, in order for them to carry out ad- vanced research on various issues relevant to countries and popula- tions located outside the epicentre of the global system, as well as to provide the necessary theoretical and methodological perspectives to acquire a thorough understanding of those issues. 9 DEMOCRATIC RENEWAL VERSUS NEOLIBERALISM The fundamental premise of this important effort is about the obvious inadequacy in many of the theories, concepts and methodolo- gies developed in the North—solidified by the hegemonic trend of the social sciences—that ignores the comprehensive understanding of the problems that Southern countries are facing. These were developed in a particular historical period, in the framework of their own realities, experiences and cultures, propagating the idea that modern society and capitalism are the results of an internal self-generated process of the European continent, which then spreads to ‘backward’ regions. Moreover, this Eurocentric construction disregards populations, so- cial classes, cultures, social groups and individuals that make up the nations, countries and Southern states; as well as the environment, natural resources, space and territory that shelter them. The Universalist aim of said discourse has collided time and again with this heterogeneous mosaic, and with the various authors and social science trends that are beginning to criticize modernity and global capitalism from the sidelines. This is an emancipatory cri- tique since it aims to destroy the myths surrounding the idea of Eu- ropean self-advocacy as the universal bearer of reason and historical progress, and with it the belief that the rest of the world embodies barbaric backwardness. In this regard, we can say that the exercise ‘of unthinking’ the social sciences began in Our America during the fifties. Those contributions arise from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which was accompanied by a series of trends, authors, schools of thought, theories and perspectives that critically linked theoretical activity with the historical reality of our countries and societies. Because of this reasoning between social reality and theory of knowledge, now, we have not only the basic principles but also a multitude of views, as highlighted by Pablo González Casanova, when speaking of the social sciences in the region. However, this distinctive thinking in the social sciences was dis- mantled in the eighties by the emergence of Neoliberalism, which managed to hegemonize the activities of cultural centres and acad- emies of Latin America through a wave of military dictatorships. Chile, venue of this new version of the South-South Institute, would be the first instance of a systematic neoliberal experience in the world. Its ideological inspiration was more North American than Austrian; Friedman is resorted to more than Hayek, as witnessed by the over- whelming dominance of the ‘Chicago Boys’ in the implementation of the neoliberal model in the country. It is worth noting that nobody like Friedman puts economic freedom as the centre of the ideological system of Neoliberalism, 10 Introduction understanding it as ‘an end in itself’ and as a necessary condition for political freedom. True freedom is exercised in the context of the market, where all individuals are officially equal, and political liberty can only be a derivation of this. These ideas constituted from the neoliberal core have the power to reconcile economic liberal- ism and political authoritarianism, and lead to a political strategy named ‘protected democracy’. In this sense, Friedman could only see the Chilean experience with admiration and without any intellectual inconsistencies between liberty and democracy. The dictatorial state was seen as a necessary measure in a time of preparation of certain conditions in the field of economics that would be a precursor to future political freedom; which in itself is not for everyone, since it excludes those who deny private property and the free market, pro- tecting it from them. For these same reasons, the market takes on an absolute central role in Neoliberalism, but in renewed ways. The wholesome