Total Capitalism : Market Politics, Market State Book

Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. The rise and fall of development theory. 3. Neo-liberal democracy. 4. The cynical state.

"Under total capitalism the free market is the supreme value to which not just national sovereignty and civil liberties, but all public and private life, are increasingly subordinated– to the point where the distinction between public and private is transformed into a useful fiction. Public transport, education, health care, social services, scientific research, telecommunications, broadcasting, publishing, pensions, foreign aid, land use, water, the public infrastructure, the arts, and public policy-making itself ‘increasingly entrusted to private sector personnel seconded into government ministries’: all become subject to market-driven policy-making in the name of ‘efficiency’, and are treated more and more as fields for profitable private investment rather than as means to a better society.

The three essays in this book are about the arrival and implications of total capitalism, its politics, economics and ethics, and span a decade of work by the author." (jacket)