The market’s decentralized nature makes economic neocolonialism theoretically impossible for Bauer
Evidence
Bauer reserved his most strenuous criticism for those who spoke of ‘economic colonialism’ or ‘neo-colonialism’, to define the situation of post-independence states. Such terminology, he argued, ‘confuses poverty with colonial status, a concept which has normally meant lack of political sovereignty’. Bauer took direct aim at the analysis of neocolonialism developed by Kwame Nkrumah that we examined in Chapter Three. Bauer challenged this politicisation of economic relations, and rejected Nkrumah’s charge that neo-colonialism was keeping the African continent ‘artificially poor’. A nation can be subjected to political colonialism, he argued, but it makes no sense to speak of colonisation or domination in the economy as economic relations are not the product of the imposition of a single will. On the contrary, he argued that the market impersonally coordinated the free, voluntary interactions of numerous individuals, and must be protected (by the state and law) from political interference. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 402
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines the contested term ‘neocolonialism’ via the dispute between Nkrumah and Bauer, and shows how market theory’s definitional commitments foreclose it.
- XREF: Directly engages Nkrumah’s neocolonialism analysis from Chapter Three; ties to the earlier distinction between poverty and political sovereignty. — connects to: Peter Bauer reframed development economics to prioritize markets over security concerns — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1334; Bauer championed private foreign investment and bourgeois virtues against development orthodoxy — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1321
Broader Connections
- Peter Bauer reframed development economics to prioritize markets over security concerns
#expands(0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1334