HISTORY

POLITICS AND THE STATE PART 2

World war and colonial states

In early twentieth century there were two world wars. These were fought between European countries for colonial space. Germany in early twentieth century had developed industrially. But it had been left behind other European countries in the race to acquire colonies for raw materials and markets. Now Germany went to war with other European nations as it tried to capture adjacent nations like Poland and France as colonies. Whereas Europeans were comfortable with colonizing other continents the same within Europe was intolerable. Germany lost both the world wars  but it made Europeans withdraw  gradually from their colonies. The war had made them militarily exhausted and most colonies now had educated elites asking for freedom. 

Cold War and neocolonialism

   However the end of war divided the nations of the world into two camps ideologically. The communist nations were led by soviet Russia and capitalist by United States.The communists provided in their nations a job and education and health to all. However this was ensured through a command economy where all production and distribution was done by the state. With the absence of price signals economic management became inefficient, In absence of competition innovation suffered and productivity fell .The communist ideology advocated a dictatorship of the proletariat,with absence of multiparty democracy and free speech. Morever it predicted communist revolutions all over the world and suppported such movements financially and with arms. Countries of Eastern Europe under communist rule tried to forge reforms but the movements in Hungary and checkoslovakia were brutally suppressed by soviet Russia.The United States led by Western Europe opposed a communist takeover of nations and championed multiparty democracy and a market economy.To oppose communist takeover of nations they also started regime changes in countries where the leadership favoured the  Soviet Union.The CIA carried out military coups in Chile ,assassinated Mossadeq primeminister of Iran ,supported and armed Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan to achieve its aim of countering the soviets. The encouragement of Islamic fundamentalism by USA for serving its ends has led to severe complications. Today the entire belt of countries from Syria Iraq.Iran.Pakistan is ruled by militant Islam posing serious threat to Israel .The population of these countieies are suffering silently the  encroachment of women’s rights and artistic freedom by Islamists

    Apart from destabilizing pro soviet governments the US deep state also built military  bases in the Middle East  to safeguard oil supply. Other European nations built military bases in African nations to safeguard their assets.As a result of above the western nations could pressurize the developing countries into giving favourable trade terms to them.

     To counter the soviet model the USA did help East Asian economies ,Japan and later China(After China deserted the Soviet Union and joined the United States) to become tiger economies. The principal way was by encouraging American private investment,technological infusion and giving access to the vast American market to their exports.

USA as sole superpower

After the collapse of the Soviet Union the USA became the sole superpower. In the absence of an ideological rival it started regime changes whenever the nation opposed it. Some of them were by military force such as in Iran,Libya,Syria and Kosovo/ Serbia,while in other nations it  used a more subtle toolkit. The western media generally does not question news by agencies such as Reuters or thinktanks which periodically give expert opinion on the global standards of literacy,democracy of nations. Initially news items fed by the CIA  build a narrative of democracy being undermined in a country. Subsequently political groups opposed to the regime are funded through NGOs and through social media exhorted to create a peoples rebellion .Such regime changes have occured in Ukraine and Bangladesh recently with tragic consequences to the population . In Ukraine almost the entire young population has been killed in a proxy war with Russia. In Bangladesh an Islamist regime has taken control with killing of minority Hindus.

Developing countries and the  state

The developing countries of Asia and Africa which became independent  from colonial powers faced some common challenges. Firstly they had completely missed the Industrial Revolution during colonial rule and were desperately poor. Secondly many of them were multiethnic stated with fissiparous movements led by local leaders ,many of them armed. Thirdly the state apparatus was weakly developed compounding the implementation of efforts for industrialization and political democracy.Efforts to counter rebel movements often failed and risked being condemned as dictatorship and failure of democracy by western media. Democracy resulted in leaders being elected who promised  free electricity or free rations or promised an independent province to the people. Out of extreme poverty the electorate believed in short term gains rather than those leaders who promised improved health,education.investment in infrastructure.

    In an effort to achieve rapid industrialization the soviet model was often followed. This involved state ownership of heavy industries,severe production quotas for private industries,high income tax on rich,Apart from the corrupt political and beauracratic deep state a crony capitalist business elite also now developed. They lobbied and bribed the government for quotas and licenses.

Ack: capital and ideology,The elusive quest for growth,Building state capacity