UNDER-DEVELOPMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF NEO-MARXISM

Hanna Larissa Liuag

Grounded under the tenets of Althusserian and Zizek’s redefinitions of Marxism in today’s
world, the traditional Marxist definition of defining development concepts and models are
essentially retained; the only difference, of course, lies in the context. Still, Neo-Marxism entails
the long-aged conclusion which Marx has introduced to the critique of political economy: the
problem is still a matter of proper distribution of resources in such a way that surplus is
perceived to be a direct means for exploitation. The premise of surplus comes from the intention
of manufacturing sites and large-scale industries to derive the overall value of production from it,
and in turn, retain a standardized wage system which does not necessarily reflect that the value
of said production will sear through those who have contributed greatly in the force of
production. In this respect, exploitation becomes a materially-recognized conflict and has
consistently brought the world a constant hint of economic crises with varying degrees of impact.
A middle-class individual's tendency to avoid engaging in direct confrontation is just normative.
They spare no effort to challenge their assertions because they are confident that whatever ideas
they develop within their exclusive bubbles are accurate, right, and just. This individualistic
outlook is risky, particularly if they must inevitably represent their supported candidate. They
emanate a fairly noxious stink that drives away the chance to educate any possible supporters in
exchange for their commitment to defend and further satisfy their right to refuse any adverse
stimulus that may threaten their ability to criticize.
Heise and Khan (2019) made an effort to shed some light on the evolution of welfare states in
advanced economies since World War Two (WW2) within the framework of a narrative that
aims to combine institutional distinctions, referred to as "varieties of capitalism," with the
historical regimes of regulation theory in a political economy perspective that places interested
political actors at the forefront. It will be claimed that the elite may "create a political will" in a
liberal democracy to serve its interests by framing issues and creating agendas. The welfare state
derives its general characteristics from the minimum level of meritocratic requirements rather
than from a protracted social battle on the behalf of the poor. This even resulted in an increase in
social welfare spending to more than a third of national revenue in the highly unique post-WW2
conditions. Political dispute centered on the specific form of the welfare state, and cultural and
institutional contexts may be used to draw a clear line between liberal and coordinated market
economies. However, the fundamental idea of the welfare state serves the interests of the
meritocracy just as much as those who gain from social programs and redistributing wealth. With
this, the neoliberal assault on the welfare state since the 1980s is a manifestation of a changed
cost-benefit analysis from the elite's point of view rather than a required re-calibration brought
on by shifting economic conditions or a rising lack of solidarity among the populace.
Cremer et al. Al. (2020) contrasted the projected total cost of slavery and prejudice to African
American descendants of the enslaved with the 2018 per capita wealth disparity between Black
and White people, which was around US$352,250. Using Darity's land-based and Marketti's
price-based estimating approaches (as cited by Cremer et al. Al. (2020), we reach estimates of
about $12 to $13 trillion in 2018 USD during the time of slavery in the United States. Craemer's
wage-based technique estimates range from US$18.6 trillion at 3% interest to US$6.2 quadrillion
at 6% interest, although they are often higher. According to reparations for the incarceration of
Japanese Americans during World War II, the value of lost freedom (LF) is estimated to be
worth US$35 trillion at 3% interest and US$16 quadrillion at 6% interest. Negotiations between
the federal government and the descendent community must still be conducted in order to decide
if the whole cost of slavery and prejudice should be covered, or only a fraction of it, and at what
interest rate.
Building on this premise, Litschka (2019) posits that normative conversations concerning media
policy should investigate the implications and application possibilities of certain capability
approaches in a sense that it provides an overview of some significant streams of orthodox
political-economic theories and their function in the "mediatized" world, focusing on two key
ideas for media policies: the potential impact that media capabilities can have on media
consumers in a mediatized economy and the significance of publicity and mass media when it
comes to issues of justice. The capacity approach offers intriguing political-economic insights
for both problems in this respect.
The primary emphasis of Siddiqui's (2018) work is the rhetoric around neoliberal economic
policy and its consequences on the Indian economy, particularly in light of sectoral shift. His
central argument is based on a critical analysis of the existing literature and a substantial addition
that directly adds to it by emphasizing the industrial and agricultural sectors, which have been
largely ignored by orthodox economists who have concentrated on growth rates. Since the
majority of published research has focused on India's total GDP growth rates, Siddiqui's (2018)
work places emphasis on the aforementioned principles since there appears to be a gap in the
literature at the moment. India's post-planning reform period saw a decrease in the state's and the
public sector's influence, the dismantling of regulations, and an increase in the market and
private sector's influence over the economy. Foreign capital investment and foreign exchange
reserves increased as a consequence.
Bagus et. al (2021) wanted to create a political economy based on widespread panic. They have
researched previous instances of mass hysteria using the backdrop of COVID-19. Repeatedly
disseminating unfavorable information through the media can have a harmful impact on public
health by causing mass panic and nocebo effects. They basically contend that the state's use of
mass and digital media during the COVID-19 issue may have had unfavorable effects. Collective
panic that resulted may have led governments to make poor policy decisions that were at odds
with medical advice. Even if societies with a minimum state might experience mass panic, we
demonstrate that there are some self-corrective processes and boundaries to the damage that can
be caused, such as inviolable private property rights. However, when the unfavorable
information comes from a reliable source, when the media is politicized, and when social
networks make the unfavorable information ubiquitous, mass hysteria may be amplified and self-
reinforcing.
This means that reliance on economic systems are directly proportional to the perceptions of
those who are able to witness the major impacts of the applications of policies that are not
necessarily aligned with elevating the lifestyles of citizens. Therefore, trust in the economic
system hinges solely on the material benefits that it provides its constituents instead of massive
press releases that states otherwise.
It is known that the average salary in the Philippines is far lower than the average salary for the
jobs listed under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). There is a common
complaint that employees don't make enough money after taxes, which is blamed for their
mounting debt. In order to recruit and keep competent and devoted public officials, the Salary
Standardization Law was formed. This law's primary goal is to elevate the quality of living for
government workers in the hopes that doing so will improve their work performance and
organizational commitment. Additionally, this may lead to the accomplishment of the Philippine
Development Goals, which aim to significantly develop the country.
In place of students' desire in starting their own firms, Atef & Al-Balushi (2015) conclude that
institutions must realign their aims and long-term aspirations to the entrepreneur-tolerant
industry. Additionally, it has been observed that Sultan Qaboos University students in the
tourism program are more committed to developing their entrepreneurial abilities in order to
better prepare themselves and their aspirations to launch a firm. Rashid (2017) argues that there
are push and pull elements that determine whether it is feasible for a student (or anyone else, for
that matter) to pursue entrepreneurship as a method of making a living. Rashid adds that while
the regulations are in place, it is still a work in progress to establish the tools necessary to pattern
out and mold someone's "entrepreneurial purpose." This is a result of a lack of knowledge about
the attitudes and perceptions of young people toward entrepreneurship and how this may
ultimately enhance their quality of life.
The need to pattern out and create a framework to better understand the dynamics of
entrepreneurship as well as the public's view of it is addressed in Pantea's (2018) study. Pantea
concentrated more on the product development side, creating a sellable product and a profitable
business model. However, given that entrepreneurship requires a high level of social standing to
maintain the stability of a newly-established organization, respondents in this study were shown
to be confused about their desire to pursue both employment and entrepreneurship. These results
support the idea that employment may be seen by the public as a way to raise funds or as a way
to connect their interests with what they want to produce and market. In a way, this may be seen
as a comprehensive method of gathering market research, giving individuals engaged the chance
to familiarize themselves with how the sector develops and functions before incorporating and
assimilating their own discoveries.
It is impossible to deny the severity of the damages, which have rendered the industry either
beyond repair or to the point where the quick technological change has so thoroughly permeated
socio-economic and socio-political paradigms that it is irreversible and cannot be returned to pre-
pandemic practices. Because of this, the majority of government decision-making bodies must
continue to clear the way for policies that advance rather than retreat. It is now more about
transformation than recovery, and for the beneficiaries to gain, significant societal reforms are
required. For instance, because to COVID-19 limitations, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs)
have encountered a number of difficulties upon their return to the Philippines. The Philippines
has established itself as a significant supplier of labor to its neighbors. Thanks to the Labor
Export Policy, which was put in place in the 1970s, the nation is now able to satisfy this labor
need on a global scale. Asis (2017), on the other hand, said that migration policies were a
response to both the nations' economic problems and the need for labor globally, to the point
where they were unable to provide enough employment for their citizens. Asis says, "People
continued to be driven to go abroad by a lack of continuous economic improvement, political
instability, unbridled population growth, persistent unemployment, and low wages.”
Emphasis on the interdependence of industry toward social policies is necessary for industries to
completely develop. As Roldan (2020) put it, this raises the issue of a more systematic approach
as opposed to a personalized one.
In the end, it could make more sense for present organizations and organizations to maintain the
advancements as essential forces that will move society closer to the advanced creative era,
rather than as alternatives. Businesses now have access to a wide range of adaptable work
features as well as an authoritative framework that thrives in total comfort, and present
foundations simply cannot afford to lose this edge.
CBT (Community-Based Tourism) is a relatively general term that really covers a wide range of
ideas and methods, as mentioned by dela Rosa, Tur, and Andreu (2017). The fact that CBT
depends on the similarly multivocal and heavily ideologically and politically biased idea of
community is the fundamental cause of this empirical diversity. dela Rosa, Tur, and Andreu
(2017) introduced a new theoretical framework for when CBT is fully developed, one that spans
a continuum from extremely "open" to very "closed" models, with the empirical variety of the
conceptual pair Community CBT distributed along it. Being that the various community models
are nothing more than social ideologies, this continuum also contains an unavoidable political
component that is inextricably linked to the CBT models themselves. To use traditional political
language, the open-to-close continuum is also a right-to-left one.
The Philippines has been frequently targeted by various rebel movements. The nation's armed
forces are always looking for new strategies to diffuse and lessen the effects of insurgency,
starting in the mountainous regions and advancing towards observing the presence of militants in
the cities. This is a carryover from the nation's earlier struggles on a human scale. Using
secondary sources that have been made public, Rawat (2019) explores the Naxalite war in India,
tracing its origins to Bengal in the 1960s and up to the present day. Lack of legitimate political
institutions, dishonest administrative and bureaucratic procedures, and strict security measures
have all contributed to the Naxalite insurgency's growth in India.
Bamidele wrote about the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in Borno State, a hotbed for the
Boko Haram insurgency (2017). The CJTF is viewed as a locally driven effort to address security
challenges and as a potentially effective tactic for putting down the insurgency. It has been
possible to locate Boko Haram militants with the aid of CJTF on several occasions, put an end to
attacks, and free towns and villages that Boko Haram had seized. Additionally, this group has
significantly aided in the network of information gathering necessary for Special Military Joint
Task Force (SMJTF) operations.
Ballast (2017) encourages the practitioners of the study in the Philippine intelligence sector to
take into account the principle of sharing intelligence as a pertinent one. According to Ballast's
(2017) evaluation, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) launched techniques that
employ both military- and civilian-led intelligence activities through a multilateral exchange.
They will be the main topic of discussion in order to further highlight the comparative
differences between national and international practices. In light of the changing nature of the
general environment, we may compare theoretical and empirical perspectives on the causes of
insurgencies and the continual necessity for counterinsurgency operations to advance.
Epistemological perspectives are really produced by comprehending the fundamental ideas and
driving forces behind communist insurgencies, as well as how they link to the populace and
sectoral representatives of the country (given that the majority of their members are the poor
from urban underclasses and the peasantry in the provinces). Evidence from empirical studies
shows that knowledge (that sustains and fosters communist insurgencies) develops from
theoretical underpinnings (or as how it is referred to as praxis). The research will attempt to take
into account these articles and combine its findings with the need to comprehend how civilian-
led intelligence may be made practical given that the majority of these studies' theoretical
interpretations are available online.
By posing the query, "Who controls power in corporate America?" Braun (2020) reconstructs the
history of this institutional arrangement and investigates the cracks in the new political economy
of corporate governance. This topic has consistently been addressed by academics using
ownership and control-related terminology. He contends that a new language is needed to
address this issue today. A century-long process of re-concentration has concentrated
shareholdings in the hands of a small number of very large asset management companies,
whereas the comparative political economy literature has long treated dispersed ownership and
weak shareholders as core features of the U.S. political economy. This developing asset manager
capitalism is controlled by completely diversified "universal owners" who have no direct
financial stake in portfolio businesses, a setup that is historically unique.
Barth et. al. (2019)'s research demonstrates how genetic endowments associated with educational
performance accurately predict retirement wealth. Flexibly adjusting for education and labor
income does not provide a complete explanation for the predicted link. We thus look at a variety
of other processes, including as heredity, mortality, risk preferences, portfolio choices, views
about the likelihood of macroeconomic events, and planning horizons, that might explain the
gene-wealth gradient. They have been able to show that genetic endowments connected to
human capital accumulation are linked to wealth through a capacity for complicated financial
decision-making as well as educational achievement and labor income.
Internet technologies must be conceptualized as essential elements of the political economy in
conceptually separate and strong formulations as part of the study of race and racism in the
digital society. Racial capitalism is proposed by Cottom (2020) as a logical foundation for this
study program. The case for racial capitalism is based on two instances of its interaction with
two aspects of the digital society: exclusion via inclusion and obfuscation as privatization. The
study of race and racism has to place internet technologies at the center because they are
currently a totalizing sociopolitical regime.
Clemens and Gotlieb (2018) investigated Medicare's impact on commercial insurers' payments to
physicians, discovering that private rates imitate Medicare's pricing strategy using a significant
administrative difference in surgical vs medical care reimbursements. A $1.00 rise in Medicare's
costs results in a $1.16 increase in matching private rates. Private reimbursements are impacted
similarly by a second set of Medicare fee modifications that result in region-specific payment
shocks. According to insurer-doctor negotiations, Medicare's effect is greatest in regions with
concentrated insurers and competitive physician markets. These payment spillovers increase
Medicare's influence on specialty choice and other welfare-related features of medical practices
by reflecting the pricing adjustments made by Medicare.
Cramer et. al. (2018) questions the accepted knowledge on economic performance and programs
for economic growth in African nations. Its starting point is the startling range in economic
performance, which makes unevenness and inequality a key truth. The writers draw attention to
variances within African nations as well as differences across them, with these variations
frequently centered around distinctions of gender, class, and ethnicity. For instance, especially
for some classes of women in specific locations, school dropout and infant death have decreased.
Exports of agricultural and horticultural products have increased significantly more quickly in
certain nations than others. These differences (and several more) suggest chances for improving
performance, lowering disparities, learning from other African countries' policy experiences, and
escaping the connections of structure and colonial legacy. These variances (along with several
others) indicate chances to improve performance, lessen inequality, learn from other African
countries' experiences with policy, and break free from structural constraints and colonial
remnants. While rejecting teleological delusions and Eurocentric bias, the book does pay
particular attention to the outcomes of policy in more developed regions of the world. It may be
possible for policymakers to safeguard themselves against the fallacious notion that progress is
likely to be a smooth, linear process or that it would be if certain obstacles were eliminated if
they could see the contradictions of capitalism for what they are—fundamental and lasting.
Many orthodox and heterodox economists are criticized by the writers, particularly for their
casual use of data sources. They use the best available data from a variety of African countries
along with heterodox political economy insights (primarily derived from Kalecki, Kaldor, and
Hirschman) to make the case for particular types of public sector investment, drawing on
decades of research and policy experience in the process.
Synthesis
Underdevelopment can be attributed to a lack of coordination, whereby the majority of agents
neglect to accurately label the operability of current partnerships with third parties, typically
coming from profitable organizations that seek to improve public service by allocating funding
to projects that take their interests into consideration at the time of drafting. In this case,
equilibrium might appear as a situation in which all people concerned are either better off or
worse off, and therefore could be manifested as a way that best serves the interests of economic
developments' major stakeholders and recipients of its impacts.
The potential costs of holding a public post grow considerably with deep involvement. Policy
choices are more crucial since a poor policy today might push an economy into a catastrophic
equilibrium for years to come. The government may considerably contribute to the problem by
perpetuating adverse conditions for the sake of personal interests such as regimes that are
enabled and therefore have tendencies toward high-corruption rates. Todaro and Smith (2018)
are correct in stating that it is imperative to work toward the formation of institutions where
participants from the public and private sectors are encouraged to engage constructively in order
to generate the circumstances necessary to escape poverty traps.
It is clear that Development Management has elitist and exclusive inclinations. Development
Management is growing and evolving along a path that is more in line with Western principles
than the immediate stakeholders. Given its complete reliance on foreign capital and Keynesian
economic principles, the nation has demonstrated its willingness to permit the entry of foreign
businesses at its own expense through portfolio investments— which, in turn, would prove that
the Neo-Marxist take on economic development is actually relevant.
Government has a clear position, and because of the pluralistic nature of how it operates, it
overcomes the obvious constraints on its resources by partnering with businesses, which in turn
provides a public service as a means of introducing the free market. Modernization must take
place in the most inclusive manner possible so that the disadvantaged population is recognized as
a key participant. Therefore, it is necessary to refocus economic development and approach it as
a reaction to the triple crisis of socio-economic, socio-political, and socio-cultural issues.
Other development partners have created similar methods to aid governments and members of
civil society in resolving governance issues in order to ensure the success of development
programs and the efficient use of national and international funding for sustainable development.
The numerous differences and characteristics of projects that are more vulnerable to being
impacted by economic paradigms are also described. Corruption is particularly important for big
and atypical projects when the public sector functions as the client, owner, or maybe the main
contractor. Megaprojects are "large unique projects" with a lot of public stakeholders and
corruption issues. Corruption hurts all aspects of performance, including cost and timeliness as
well as benefits offered.
Rather than being a necessary re-calibration brought on by changing economic conditions or a
growing lack of solidarity among the public, the neoliberal attack on the welfare state is a
symptom of a new cost-benefit analysis from the elite's point of view. Regulations will surely be
eliminated as the role of the state and the public sector declines, and the market and the private
sector will inevitably gain more sway over the economy. As a result, there is a rise in foreign
capital investment and foreign exchange reserves.
Policymakers and decision-making authorities should address the responsibility of projects to be
susceptible to political scheming in terms of economic, sociocultural, and institutional elements.
If there are electioneering motives present, this would call for strict discipline regarding conflicts
of interest. The outcomes of development cooperation are significantly impacted by corruption
and a lack of accountability and integrity. All parties engaged, including development partners,
government organizations, the commercial sector, and civil society, have a critical role to play in
preventing corruption in development cooperation.
The authority to push for genuine accountability needs to be considered by those mostly involved
in economic development; therefore, the establishment of institutions responsible for upholding
transparency is a must. There is a need to establish a distinct recruiting and remuneration process
based on merit and the market for the agency's management and staff. Provide the organization
with adequate room and funding so that it may manage itself based on results. To assess the
effectiveness of relevant agencies and its personnel, use the proper outcome and impact
indicators. For the purpose of solidifying the credibility of organizations, we need to develop a
leadership structure to spread leadership tasks and risks while creating internal checks and
balances.
International alliances and tribunal courts were helpless to resolve conflicts, and they were
vehemently rejected by the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations. The cause of this can
be attributed to the representation of national ambassadors who are appointed by representatives
of established governments, who neglect the potential for collusion between the state
representative in office and a nation with a history of impunity and a lack of desire to face
consequences. Democracy has been designed to ignore any subaltern representation and to
excuse and even represent governmental atrocities, eventually falling short of social justice.
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