Abstract

RODRIGUES, João. In the Shadow of 1989: International Political Economy after the End of History. Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais [online]. 2018, n.spe2018, pp.189-216. ISSN 2182-7435.  https://doi.org/10.4000/rccs.7834.

This article argues that nearly three decades after 1989, a year marking the onset of wide-reaching global transformations, we still live under the shadow of one of its main consequences in terms of political economy: the fatal crisis of socialism implied that capitalism, whose neoliberal turn intensified, ceased to be subject to systemic checks and balances to its action. This diagnosis will be explored through the detailed analysis of two formulas and a document that appeared, perhaps not by chance, in 1989: the Washington Consensus, the end of history and the so-called Delors Report about the European Monetary Union. Seen together, they reflect some of the central planks of an international political economy of a neoliberal bent, still to be surpassed institutionally, due to the lack of fear among the power elites, among other factors. The article concludes by making a populist proposal to begin the process of reversing this perverse state of affairs.

Keywords : capitalism; European Union; neoliberalism; political economy; populism; socialism.

        · abstract in Portuguese | French     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )