UC World Politics has finally concluded, well, at least the blogging component. Living and learning with the same extraordinary group of people has definitely defined my freshmen experience thus far. It has been a somewhat crazy ride to this point, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
This last hectic week we completed our major simulation. As part of the Venezuela group, I had a completely different perspective on development than our counterparts at the table. The idea of development has been dominated by the Washington Consensus for far too long. Venezuela’s 21st Century Socialism offers an alternative development model created by Venezuela for Venezuela. I think that’s the most important element here. Why should a bunch of free market economists from rich Western countries dictate the economic policies of third world countries? These policies don’t take into account empowerment of the poor and easily enable large corporations to swoop in and make massive profits.
One thing at odds with free-market economics is the idea of nationalization. The United States is often alarmed and indignant at the thought of governments taking control of vital industries such as oil. Historically there has been a messy process through which nationalization of oil industries occurred. The Middle East provides the best example. When Iran nationalized its lucrative oil fields, the action was denounced by the British who had complete control of the fields through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. The British with U.S. support then went on to overthrow the government and reestablish an oppressive monarchy that was more amenable to Western interests. The Gulf States went through a slightly different process of nationalization. It was a gradual process that was never called “nationalization” but instead termed “100 percent participation.” This meant that states such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia slowly acquired their own national possessions.
The Gulf States and other oil states that declared nationalization in effect did the same thing; they took control of mineral wealth located within their sovereign borders. The only difference was that the Gulf States did it with Western cooperation and the others without. Developed countries should accept the right of resource rich countries to determine how they want to manage those resources. If it means nationalization, then so be it.
Venezuela through the leadership of Hugo Chavez has asserted its right to its wealth for the purpose of financing development plans that would otherwise take many decades. A set of development principles developed by the World Bank and IMF should not be imposed on Venezuela and other developing countries.
The Venezuelan model is best summarized by Hugo Chavez himself.
“We are breaking the neoliberal model. We do not believe in free trade. We believe in fair trade and exchange, not competition, but cooperation. I'm not giving away oil for free. Just using
oil, first to benefit our people, to relieve poverty”[1]
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