Late capitalism and ethnic revivalism

Abstract

A new settlement between global capitalism and non-democratic forms of political regulation is emerging from the contingency between the neotraditionalist ideologies of ethnic revival movements and the modes of regulation of late capitalism. The discussion of the emergence of Maori neotribal capitalism illustrates the ways in which a neotraditionalist ideology (such as ascribed leadership and the assumed restoration of communal social relations of production) and non-democratic neotribal modes of regulation create the social conditions that guarantee the stability of capitalist accumulation. It is argued that this contingency threatens the historical and contradictory settlement between liberal democracy and capitalism and signals the possibility of a `New Middle Age' (Minc cited in Friedman, 1994: vii). This `New Middle Age' would be characterized by doubly oppressive social and economic structures: the oppressive political and social relations of traditional societies in conjunction with the exploitative economic relations inherent to capitalism.

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