The shock strategy

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Naomi Klein at the presentation of her book in Berlin

The Shock Strategy: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism is a book critical of capitalism by the Canadian journalist Naomi Klein that was published in September 2007 in a German translation from English . Using contemporary historical examples, the author explains how shocks of an economic or military nature and natural disasters can be used to implement privatizations based on the model of the Chicago School, and in particular Milton Friedman, in national economies against the politically articulated will of the majority of the population via political influence .

Core theses

After an introduction, Klein describes in the first chapter of the book the historical origin of electroshock therapy in psychiatry and especially the experiments of the psychiatrist Donald Ewen Cameron , who carried out brainwashing experiments on behalf of the CIA in the 1950s , in which the targeted destruction of the personality of The patient succeeded but the restoration of a new identity failed, drawing parallels between these shock therapies, torture methods and what Klein saw as a neoliberal economy.

In the second chapter, Klein discusses the Chicago School and Milton Friedman and its neoliberal theories. After economic shocks , military defeats or natural disasters, these were basically used to implement broad privatization measures and the dismantling of welfare state mechanisms. According to the exemplary so-called miracle of Chile under Pinochet , the shock strategy was also in the People's Republic of China under Deng Xiaoping , in Great Britain by Margaret Thatcher after the Falklands War, in Russia under Boris Yeltsin , New Orleans in the USA after Hurricane Katrina as well used in Iraq after the American invasion. She goes into detail about the preparations and comments on the implementation based on historically observable events.

In addition to Milton Friedman, Jeffrey Sachs is also criticized in Klein's book . The theories of these two economists and their practical implementation were the basis of the policies of the IMF and the World Bank , which would contribute to impoverishment and exploitation in large parts of the world.

reception

Joseph E. Stiglitz wrote that Klein was not an academic and could not be judged as such. In many places it would over-simplify. The shock therapists criticized by Klein would have done the same when they assumed complete information and perfect markets to justify their policy recommendations.

John N. Gray describes the book as one of the few that really understand the present. One of the book's strengths is the parallels drawn between seemingly unrelated developments.

According to Tyler Cowen , director of the neoliberal Mercatus Center , the book offers no arguments, but a Dadaist juxtaposition of topics and supposedly parallel developments. Many of Klein's connections are so impressionistic and rely so heavily on flattering winks that they cannot be presented in a short book review, nor criticized. Klein's own comment: “I believe people believe their own bullshit. Ideology can be a great enabler for greed. ”Is perhaps the core of her own approach.

Johan Norberg from the right-wing conservative Cato Institute sums up that Klein's core thesis and economic examples did not stand up to scrutiny and that they provide less evidence than a series of constructed claims. As a counterexample, Norberg cited the halt to market economy reforms in China after the Tian'anmen massacre in 1989. He also contradicts Klein with regard to the development of global poverty, which, contrary to many of her statements, has fallen considerably since 1990, this is in agreement, not in contrast to market economy openings.

Philip Plickert , a member of the largely neo-liberal and right-wing liberal Friedrich A. von Hayek Society since 2015 , sees the book in a review in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung “as a frenzied polemic that presents facts in an extremely one-sided way and twisted historical contexts”. Klein narrowed a generally human approach known from history to a neoliberalism viewed almost in terms of conspiracy theory. Serious events and defeats have always been seen and used as an opportunity for reform and renewal. The capacity for renewal and innovation of capitalism is not only to be determined in relation to Milton Friedman and the so-called miracle of Chile. Klein only mentioned Ludwig Erhard's economic and currency reform of 1948, “the German experiment in shock therapy”, in one footnote .

In contrast, Rudolf Walther says in his review for the Frankfurter Rundschau that Klein, despite weaknesses in the analysis, has compiled a wealth of material in her book, much of which, in his opinion, is difficult to dismiss. The connections described by Klein would, however, remain rather vague.

Felix Lee comments in the taz that Klein describes "virtuously" and "meticulously exactly" how neoliberalism could have spread over the entire world in the past 30 years. With this book she has finally become the “icon of the movement critical of globalization”.

Alexander Cockburn writes that Klein would ignore the significant influence of other, more left-wing liberal economic theorists on international economic institutions. Klein mobilized with detailed and carefully researched outrageous facts, but the postulated connections remained vague, they aroused their followers and readers without showing alternative courses of action ".

Awards

For the English-language original edition " The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism ", Naomi Klein received the Warwick Prize, first awarded in 2009, for excellently written publications (prize money £ 50,000 ), donated by the University of Warwick .

Text output

  • Naomi Klein: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism ; Metropolitan Books / Henry Holt, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-8050-7983-8 (first edition)
  • Naomi Klein: The Shock Strategy: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism ; From the English; S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039611-2

filming

British director Michael Winterbottom made a documentary based on Naomi Klein's book, which premiered at the Berlinale International Film Festival in February 2009. The reviewer of the taz , Stefan Reinecke , characterized the film as "a kind of infotainment agitprop".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Fischermann: Capitalism Critique: The Torture Cellar of Globalization. In: Zeit Online . September 11, 2007, accessed December 23, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Joseph E. Stiglitz: Bleakonomics , New York Times, September 30, 2007
  3. ^ John Gray: The end of the world as we know it , The Guardian, September 15, 2007
  4. ↑ Tyler Cowen: Shock Jock . New York Sun, October 3, 2007.
  5. ^ Johan Norberg : The Klein Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Polemics Cato Institute, accessed October 15, 2008
  6. ^ Johan Norberg: Three Days After Klein's Response, Another Attack . Cato Institute . September 4, 2008.
  7. ↑ Philip Plickert: Chicago rules the world. In: FAZ . October 12, 2007, p. 22 , accessed August 2, 2010 .
  8. ^ Rudolf Walther in the Frankfurter Rundschau , September 18, 2007
  9. ↑ Felix Lee: School of Monsters. In: taz.de . February 2, 2008, accessed December 23, 2012 .
  10. ↑ Alexander Cockburn : On Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine". In: Counterpunch. September 2007, accessed May 16, 2013 .
  11. ^ Rudolf Walther in the Frankfurter Rundschau , September 18, 2007: Torture as a silent partner (book review)
  12. ↑ Robert Jacobi: Naomi Klein's strategy: first shock and then salvation. In: Süddeutsche.de . May 10, 2010, accessed December 23, 2013 .
  13. ^ The Warwick prize for writing: 2009 Prize. University of Warwick , February 2009, accessed May 16, 2013 .
  14. ↑ The Guardian : Outstanding 'complexity' wins Naomi Klein £ 50,000 inaugural Warwick prize . February 25, 2009
  15. ↑ Filming Naomi Klein . In: Der Tagesspiegel , February 11, 2009. Retrieved May 16, 2013. 
  16. ↑ Stefan Reinecke : The mastermind is to blame. In: taz.de .