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The “Rogue-ization” of the West
In the early 1990s, political economist Francis Fukuyama coined the phrase “the end of history.” With it, he predicted that after the fall of Communism, history would terminate and democracy would dominate as a system. This system was stimulated by the free market, thus forming a new democratic model on the basis of free market capitalism and globalization. However, recent developments have challenged Fukuyama’s prediction. Not only was he wrong about the end of history, but he was also wrong about the fact that the free-market democratic system would be the sole model. What particularly put the theory into question were recent changes in some developing countries, particularly China. What has happened in this country has placed an emergence of a new model: a combination between an authoritarian regime and a free market economy.
In China’s All-Seeing Eye, Naomi Klein claims that a particular trend has been recently observed: the modernization (Westernization) of some developing countries, previously considered to be “rogue,” accompanied by the establishment of “rogue” practices by some Western states (Rolling Stone, 29 May 2008). As the “rogue” ones become more developed, the developed ones become more “rogue,” or at least have been unsuccessful in fulfilling their democratic commitments. The implications in her text are not so much about China as about the West.
When considering the credibility of Klein’s argument, it can be claimed that the argument is justifiable, especially taking into account some of the factors that have contributed to the observed changes. The main reasons for such changes stand at the very core of the Western democratic system: the free market and globalization. Truly, the spread of the free market and the power of globalization have changed some underdeveloped countries in a positive direction, but this has questioned some main democratic regime tenets: its social stability, institutional capability, and sovereign status. Eventually, the big implication of the Western system’s practices is the threat to democracy.
The “rogue-ization” of the Western state involves the emergence of a general social crisis. The challenges that Western society faces are multifaceted. First, instead of a decrease in the criminal activity with modernization, there is an increase in crime. Although is it widely claimed that people have generally become richer, a huge boost in money-related criminal activity has been a major characteristic of Western countries. In Finance and Crime, British economist Susan Strange states that recently, there has been an increase in “organized crime” and that money laundering has become a broad practice (Mad Money, 1998). This is impossible without the freedoms granted by the Western free-market system, Strange implies. Moreover, instead of a decrease in gang violence, there has been a huge rise, especially in multiethnic areas, where violence exists not only on a racial basis, but also on the basis of competing financial profits. In one of Ross Kemp’s documentaries on gangs, the journalist reveals the image of the raging gang activity within a single Los Angeles borough (On Gangs -- LA). From the documentary, one can see that the problem is not only the presence of the gangs, but the fact that they support their gang activity through illegal practices (trafficking, illegal drug trade, etc.), which are usually facilitated by free-market forces.
Social decay in the West does not only involve criminal activity. Generally, it has been related to radical social dislocations. In this sense, territorial dislocation of people is not the main problem; the disturbance of traditional social structures has posed challenges. As Peter Drucker predicts in his article The Next Society, “the rapid growth of the older population and the rapid shrinking of the younger population” will cause political and economic issues, like immigration and negative changes in the market structures (The Economist, 1 November 2001). Furthermore, the social changes have created problems related to increased female freedoms. Such freedoms have caused “worldwide drops in fertility rates,” “low tax receipts,” “ageing populations” (The New Girl Order, in City Journal, by Kay Hymowitz, Autumn 2007).
Along with the social problems, the West has encountered an institutional crisis. First, its institutions have faced structural problems. The institutions are created in a way that obstructs consensus. The Doha Round, for example, has been notorious for its lack of agreement. Furthermore, some of the institutions, like the EU and WTO, limit the possibilities of smaller member states to put through their own policy agenda (What Happened to Fortress Europe? External Trade Policy Liberalization in the European Union, in International Organization, by Brian Hanson, Winter 1998; From Politics to Technocracy and Back Again, in The American Journal of International Law, by Robert Howse, January 2002). Second, Western-based institutions are inefficient. They tend to promote their image through PR than through real work (lecture notes, by Sardamov, 10 December 2008). They set far-fetched goals which they are unable to implement. For example, in Recovering Sustainable Development, analyst Victor David has pointed out that the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21 set guidelines, but do not propose real course of action for alleviating global poverty and environmental problems (Foreign Affairs, January/February 2006). In The Challenge of Global Health, Laurie Garrett claims that despite the significant financial aid the West has pumped into poor countries in improving their healthcare systems, Western institutions are ineffective in implementing significant changes accompanying such funding (Foreign Affairs, January/February 2007).
The social and institutional problems in the West lead to a more general threat: the threat to democracy and the sovereignty of the Western state. As the free market has opened doors to investment in small countries, it has caused democratic deficits. In Making the Killing: The Myth of Capital’s Good Intentions, Ted Fishman alludes to the fact that free trade has caused poverty, slavery and injustice, especially in the factories where cheap labor produces the goods which bring millions to the West (Harper’s Magazine, August 2002). Fishman also explains that much of the products that are produced by the West -- weapons, for example, sponsor genocide and mass unrest in some countries. Moreover, through grasping and spreading the consumerism idea, the Western state has challenged its own sovereignty. In the Shrunken Sovereign: Consumerism, Globalization, and American Empires, Benjamin Barber points out that corporations have undertaken the duties of the sovereign state, making decisions for the state (World Affairs Journal, Spring 2008). The author says that no longer is there a sovereign state in the traditional sense; it is ruled by the free market, consumerism, and globalization.
But is the West as close to ‘rogue-ization’ as many critics claim? Maybe it is extreme to say that the Western future is grim. People like Drucker, despite being critics, also advocate the Western state. In The Global Economy and the Nation-State, Peter Drucker claims that governments, not markets, are guilty for all problems (Foreign Affairs, September/October 1997). State sovereignty has not diminished, but the governments have made mistakes (Drucker, 1997). Moreover, some might say that the West has brought freedom and human rights more than anybody else. “The West in its many cultural manifestations is a human rights crusader,” says journalist Polly Toynbee in her article Who’s Afraid of Global Culture (Global Capitalism, August 2001). Also, as many other Western defenders would say, the West has all the resources to fight social crises. The West is not only the creator of much of the modern technology to fight social issues, but is also the one who is most capable of utilizing it to fight crime and terrorism, for example. Furthermore, social dislocations and changing social structures are not a huge problem since more people have become richer and able to consume what they want.
Ignoring the fact that the West benefits to a great extent from free markets and globalization, one comes to the main point Kline makes in China’s All-Seeing Eye. Despite all the positive consequences of free markets, the West has suffered from social and institutional problems exactly because of the markets. Thus, instead of presenting itself as a successful result of globalization, it has tarnished its own image by inefficient institutions and unstable society. The great implication for the West in this case is the challenge to democracy. The best example of this is the post-9/11 American world, which, as Kline observes, has become similar to the policeman-like Chinese world. As ironic as it may seem, the West may be turning into the ‘rogue’ who not long ago was pointing a minatory forefinger at developing ‘rogues’ like China.
Lilia Yakova
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