Mariano Féliz

Neo-developmentalism: Beyond Neoliberalism? Capitalist Crisis and Argentina's Development since the 1990s

Argentina’s recent trajectory has provoked several discussions in the last few years. Most of them have centred on the character of the new mode of development presumed to have appeared in the wake of the crisis of neoliberal rule. This article provides an analysis of the changes and continuities in capitalist development in Argentina after the crisis of 2001. We provide extensive evidence regarding changes in the mode of development which, we propose, has shifted towards a neo-developmentalist alternative. While we argue that this strategy perpetuates capitalist domination, more importantly we stress that it also implies signifijicant changes from the previous pattern of development. Particularly, the new mode of capitalist development creates a new set of public policies that mediate class-conflict in renewed ways.

A Note on Argentina, Its Crisis, and the Theory of Exchange Rate Determination

Argentina’s crisis at the end of the twentieth century surprised economists. Argentina turned from a “Latin American miracle” to an unprecedented failure. This article looks into the crisis stressing the role of the exchange rate regime and emphasizes the overvaluation of the real exchange rate as a part of capital’s strategy to decompose labor and restructure capital-labor relations. Argentina’s crisis resulted from the combination of capital’s strategic success and the recomposition of labor in the late nineties.

Limits and Barriers of Neodevelopmentalism Lessons from the Argentinean Experience, 2003-2011

Neodevelopmentalism has become Argentina’s hegemonic development project after neoliberalism. While it has been able to bring back economic growth, the development of its inner contradictions is creating growing barriers to the possibility of further expansion within the same project of development, particularly as the world economy enters into crisis. I analyze the constitution of the hegemonic project and the main barriers it faces.

Neo-developmentalism, Accumulation by Dispossession and International Rent—Argentina, 2003–2013

After the crisis of the neoliberal project in Argentina, dominant classes were able to recreate their social hegemony under the umbrella of a new development project, which has been labelled neo-developmentalist. A new articulation of productive forces, state-form and constitution of the class conflict, led by a new hegemonic bloc dominated by the transnationalized fractions of capital, dialectically displaced neoliberal adjustment momentum in Argentina. Much in line with Rosa Luxemburgs analysis, neo-developmentalist savoir-faire tries to create the conditions for sustained capital accumulation while accepting—as a question of historical inevitability and, even, good luck—the place of Argentina as producer-exporter of primary commodities and basic manufactures of those commodities. In such context, a permanent and systematic process of “primitive accumulation,” or accumulation by dispossession to follow Harveys terminology, becomes tantamount to the production and expanded reproduction of capital in Argentinas value-space. In this article, I discuss these processes showing how ground-rent articulates with primitive accumulation to perpetuate accelerated valorization and accumulation of capital in Argentina after 2003. First, I discuss some relevant theoretical concepts. After that, I discuss how Rosa Luxemburgs approach can be useful and enlighten the analysis of the current process of capital accumulation in Argentina. Finally, I present some brief conclusions and the bibliographical references.