Two faces of the transnational cadre under neo-liberalism

Abstract

This article argues that the integration of capitalist society at both national and international levels is coming about as a result of two processes of the ‘socialization of labour’ — market socialization and planned socialization. All relations of power in contemporary society are established through these two forms of social cohesion in combination, one operating blindly, the other involving conscious management and control. Politics is the process of mediating between them, both nationally and internationally. In articulating the sphere of actual control with the uncertainties of the market, politicians tend to rely on implicit frameworks of rule, or concepts of control, in which a particular national/international balance of what is managed and what is left to the market is laid down for a longer period. In the 20th century, a new class of managerial cadre emerged in between the property-owning capitalist class and the working class; displacing an older middle class of state- or self-employed notables. This new cadre is entrusted with managerial tasks and tends to favour non-market solutions over market solutions even when employed to foster the latter. While the current neo-liberal concept of control apparently shifts the balance towards transnational market socialization compared to the preceding corporate liberalism with its managerial emphasis, non-market forms of socialization are therefore continuing to develop even under neo-liberal globalization. Although the world faces a crisis of the exhaustion of society and nature, the potential for re-regulation and manageability does exist and can be identified by reference to this cadre.