The first paragraph, written by someone so privileged he doesn't know he is, was enough for me. The neoconservatives have reached the end of their history.
Gene Coyle On Aug 4, 2011, at 6:00 AM, Louis Proyect wrote: > (This article appears in a neoconservative magazine. It is an > answer to the new book by Duke University economist Timur Kuran, a > Turk, who claims that Islam retarded the growth of capitalism. My > interest in the topic stems from my research into the "transition" > debate that involved Sweezy vs. Dobb, Brenner vs. Sweezy, Blaut > vs. Brenner, etc. I am planning to read Maxime Rodinson's "Islam > and Capitalism" the first chance I get to answer Kuran, but will > be sure to take a look at some of the references in this article > that implicitly make the case against Kuran. I also have plans to > read up on the supposedly "feudal" nature of Indian society at the > time of the British colonial onslaught in the light of the > "Asiatic Mode of Production" theory. In terms of Kuran's > arguments, even before I have had a chance to read his book, the > notion of Islam holding back capitalist transformation seems > particularly dubious in light of the Anatolian tigers of the > textile industry that constitute the base of the AKP in Turkey.) > > http://www.city-journal.org/2011/21_3_muslim-economy.html > > Is Islam Compatible with Capitalism? > The Middle East’s future depends on the answer. > > by Guy Sorman > > The moment you arrive at the airport in Cairo, you discover how > little Egypt—the heart of Arab civilization—is governed by the > rule of law. You line up to show your passport to the customs > officer; you wait and wait and wait. Eventually, you reach the > officer . . . who sends you to the opposite end of the airport to > buy an entry visa. The visa costs 15 U.S. dollars; if you hand the > clerk $20, though, don’t expect any change, let alone a receipt. > Then you make the long hike back to the customs line, where you > notice that some Egyptians—important ones, apparently—have helpers > who hustle them through. Others cut to the front. It’s an annoying > and disturbing welcome to a chaotic land, one that has grown only > more chaotic since the January revolution. It’s also instructive, > effectively demonstrating why it’s hard to do business in this > country or in other Arab Muslim lands, where personal status so > often trumps fair, universally applied rules. Such personalization > of the law is incompatible with a truly free-market or modern > society and helps explain why the Arab world’s per-capita income > is one-tenth America’s or Europe’s. > > The airport experience, had he been able to undergo it, would have > been drearily familiar to Rifaa al-Tahtawi, a brilliant young imam > sent to France in 1829 by the pasha of Egypt. His mission: figure > out how Napoleon’s military had so easily crushed Egypt three > decades earlier, a defeat that revealed to a shocked Arab world > that it was now an economic, military, and scientific laggard. At > the outset of the book that he wrote about his journey, The Gold > of Paris, Rifaa describes a Marseille café: “How astonished I was > that in Marseille, a waiter came to me and asked for my order > without my looking for him.” Then the coffee arrives without > delay. Finally—most amazing of all—Rifaa gets the bill for it, and > the price is the same as the one listed on the menu: “No > haggling,” he enthuses. Rifaa concludes: “I look for the day when > the Cairo cafés will follow the same predictable rules as the > Marseille cafés.” But nearly two centuries later, the only > Egyptian cafés that live up to Rifaa’s hopes are the imported > Starbucks. > > Egypt is, of course, a Muslim nation. Should Islam be indicted for > what was in Rifaa’s time, and remains today, a dysfunctional > economy? The question becomes all the more important if you extend > it to the rest of the Arab Middle East as it is swept by popular > revolts against authoritarian rule. Will the nations that emerge > from the Arab Spring embrace the rule of law and other crucial > institutions that have allowed capitalism to flourish in the West? > Or are Islam and economic progress fundamentally at odds? > > Muslim economies haven’t always been low achievers. In his seminal > work The World Economy, economist Angus Maddison showed that until > the twelfth century, per-capita income was much higher in the > Muslim Middle East than in Europe. Beginning in the twelfth > century, though, what Duke University economist Timur Kuran calls > the Long Divergence began, upending this economic hierarchy, so > that by Rifaa’s time, Europe had grown far more powerful and > prosperous than the Arab Muslim world. > > A key factor in the divergence was Italian city-states’ invention > of capitalism—a development that rested on certain cultural > prerequisites, Stanford University’s Avner Greif observes. In the > early twelfth century, two groups of merchants dominated > Mediterranean sea trade: the European Genoans and the Cairo-based > Maghrebis, who were Jewish but, coming originally from Baghdad, > shared the cultural norms of the Arab Middle East. The Genoans > outpaced the Maghrebis and eventually won the competition, Greif > argues, because they invented various corporate institutions that > formed the core of capitalism, including banks, bills of exchange, > and joint-stock companies, which allowed them to accumulate enough > capital to launch riskier but more profitable ventures. These > institutions, in Greif’s account, were an outgrowth of the > Genoans’ Western culture, in which people were bound not just by > blood but also by contracts, including the fundamental contract of > marriage. The Maghrebis’ Arab values, by contrast, meant > undertaking nothing outside the family and tribe, which limited > commercial expeditions’ resources and hence their reach. The bonds > of blood couldn’t compete with fair, reliable institutions (see > “Economics Does Not Lie,” Summer 2008). > > (clip) > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
