Rob Schaap:
> I suppose the flipside of big Al's theory of accelerated cycles is that
> moments of crisis (of various intensity and perception) come along so thick
> and fast that the working class is put on effectively constant alert
> (rather than gradually lulled into temporary political impotence). Then we
> could have a situation where the social democratic aspirations of the
> working class can be kept to systemically tolerable levels by some
> give-aways on the part of capital via the ol' state. The big questions
> might be (a) do we still have an institutional setting in which something
> approximating the welfare state can be redeemed? and (b) can big capitals
> smoothly come to such a party in an age where competitive 'shareholder
> value' is all?
>
> Waddyareckon?
In the United States, we observe continued dismantling and dissolution of such Welfare State practices as existed, so it must be that the level of crisis necessary to sustain the Welfare State is insufficient. In fact, the formation of the global capitalist metastate might be expected to so firmly secure the bourgeoisie, that a full reversion to fundamental liberalism, which allows for imperialism[1], slavery[2], famine[3], and outright genocide[4], could be attempted.
I don't think that will happen, because of the famous contradictions, but evidently we have not reached the point where a significant preponderance of the bourgeoisie smell anything in the wind. It seems evident that the normal politics of the system, e.g. party organization, elections, interest groups, and so on, have not worked for fans of the Welfare State absent serious threats to the system. In history, the factors which have produced the Welfare State so far have been war and the threat of war abroad and radical anti-capitalist organizing and activities at home. And this makes sense, because from the bourgeois point of view, which is one of aggressive accumulation, there is no point giving away anything you don't have to.
-- [1] _Mission_civilisatrice_, Manifest Destiny, etc., down to the present humanitarian missions too numerous to name.
[2] Justified by John Locke and observed in various parts of the West until the latter half of the 19th century.
[3] Ireland and India, for example.
[4] North American and Argentine Indians and late 19th-century Congo.