The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism is
a 2007 book by the
Canadian
author
Naomi Klein, and is the basis of a 2009 documentary by the same name
directed by
Michael Winterbottom.[1]
The book argues that the
free market policies of
Nobel Laureate
Milton Friedman have risen to prominence in some countries because
of a deliberate strategy of certain leaders to exploit crises by pushing
through controversial, exploitative policies while citizens were too
busy emotionally and physically reeling from disasters or upheavals to
create an effective resistance. It is implied that some man-made crises,
such as the
Iraq war, may have been created with the intention of pushing
through these unpopular reforms in their wake.
Synopsis
The book has an introduction, a main body and a conclusion, divided
into seven parts with a total of 21 chapters.
The introduction sketches the history of the last 30 years,
during which time economic shock doctrine has been applied throughout
the world, from
South America in the 1970s to
New Orleans after
Hurricane Katrina. Klein introduces two of her main themes:
- That practitioners of the shock doctrine tend to seek a blank
slate on which to create their ideal free market economies, which
usually requires a violent destruction of the existing economic
order, since the existing order features policies, laws, and
practices that interfere with laissez-faire capitalism.
- The similarities between economic shock doctrine and
CIA-funded
shock therapy studies in which electric shocks far exceeding
normal therapeutic levels were applied to patients in mental
hospitals in an effort to destroy psychological resistance and
create a
tabula rasa personality, upon which doctors could imprint
whatever they wanted.
Part 1 begins with a chapter on psychiatric shock therapy and
the covert experiments conducted by the psychiatrist
Ewen Cameron in collusion with the
Central Intelligence Agency: how it was partially successful in
distorting and regressing patients' original personality, but
ineffectual in developing a "better" personality to replace it.
Parallels with economic shock therapy are made, including a digression
on how government agencies harnessed some of the lessons learned to
create more effective
torture
techniques. Torture, according to Klein, has often been an essential
tool for authorities who have implemented aggressive free market reforms
– this assertion is stressed throughout the book. She suggests that for
historical reasons the
human rights movement has often portrayed torture without explaining
its context, which has made it frequently appear as pointless cruelty.
The second chapter introduces Milton Friedman and his
Chicago school of economics, whom Klein describes as leading a
laissez-faire capitalist movement committed to creating free markets
that are even less regulated than those that existed before the
Great Depression.
Part 2 discusses the use of shock doctrine to transform
South American economies in the 1970s, focusing on the coup in
Chile led
by General
Augusto Pinochet and influenced by a prominent group of Chilean
economists that had been trained at the University of Chicago in the
Economics department, funded by the CIA, and advised by Milton Friedman.
The importance of using torture and economic shock therapy in order for
the unpopular policies to be enacted by Pinochet, is explored.
Part 3 covers attempts to apply the shock doctrine without the
need for extreme violence against sections of the population. The mild
shock therapy of
Margaret Thatcher is explained as being facilitated by the
Falklands War, while free market reform in
Bolivia
was possible due to a combination of pre-existing economic crises and
the charisma of
Jeffrey Sachs.
Part 4 reports on how the shock doctrine was applied in
Poland,
Russia,
South Africa and to the
tiger economies during the
1997 Asian financial crisis.
Part 5 introduces the "Disaster Capitalism Complex", where the
author describes how companies have learnt to profit from disasters. She
talks about how the same personnel move easily from security-related
posts in US government agencies to lucrative positions in corporations.
Part 6 discusses the
occupation of Iraq, which Klein describes as the most comprehensive
and full-scale implementation of the shock doctrine ever attempted.
Part 7 is about the winners and losers of economic shock
therapy – how small groups will often do very well by moving into
luxurious
gated communities while large sections of the population are left
with decaying public infrastructure, declining incomes and increased
unemployment.
Conclusion is about the backlash against the shock doctrine
and economic institutions that propagate it like the
World Bank and
IMF. South America and
Lebanon
post-2006 are examined as sources of positive news, where politicians
are already rolling back free-market policies, with some mention of the
increased campaigning by community-minded activists in South Africa and
China.
Critical response
Praise
Paul B. Farrell from the
Dow Jones Business News stated "you must read what may be the
most important book on economics in the 21st century".[2]
John Gray wrote in
The Guardian, "There are very few books that really help us
understand the present. The Shock Doctrine is one of those
books." and described the book as "both timely and devastating".[3]
William S. Kowinski of the
San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "Klein may well have revealed the
master narrative of our time,"[4]
and it was named one of the best books of 2007 by the
Village Voice,[5]
Publishers Weekly,[6]
The Observer,[7]
and the
Seattle Times.[8]
The Irish Times describes Klein’s arguments as "compelling" with
Dr. Tom Clonan reporting that she "systematically and calmly
demonstrates to the reader" the way in which
neoconservative figures were intimately linked to seismic events
that "resulted in the loss of millions of lives".[9]
The Independent called the book "a compelling account of the way
big business and politics use global disasters for their own ends",[10]
while
Stephen Amidon of the
New York Observer calls it a "compelling study of the dark heart
of contemporary capitalism."[11]
Mixed
The
Nobel Laureate and former
Chief Economist of the World Bank
Joseph Stiglitz wrote a review of The Shock Doctrine for the
New York Times, calling the parallel between economic shock
therapy and the psychological experiments conducted by Ewen Cameron
"overdramatic and unconvincing" and claiming that "Klein is not an
academic and cannot be judged as one. There are many places in her book
where she oversimplifies." Nonetheless he claims that, "the case against
these policies is even stronger than the one Klein makes" and that the
book contains "a rich description of the political machinations required
to force unsavory economic policies on resisting countries."[12]
Shashi Tharoor in the
Washington Post says that The Shock Doctrine takes
Klein's criticism of capitalism an important step further, but also says
that Klein "is too ready to see conspiracies where others might discern
little more than the all-too-human pattern of chaos and confusion, good
intentions and greed".[13]
Criticism
In the
London Review of Books, Stephen Holmes criticizes The Shock
Doctrine as naïve, and opines that it conflates "'free market
orthodoxy' with predatory corporate behaviour."[14]
John Willman of the
Financial Times describes it as "a deeply flawed work that
blends together disparate phenomena to create a beguiling – but
ultimately dishonest– argument."[15]
Tom Redburn in the
New York Times states that "what she is most blind to is the
necessary role of entrepreneurial capitalism in overcoming the inherent
tendency of any established social system to lapse into stagnation".[16]
Jonathan Chait wrote in
The New Republic that Klein "pays shockingly (but, given her
premises, unsurprisingly) little attention to
right-wing ideas. She recognizes that
neoconservatism sits at the heart of the Iraq war project, but she
does not seem to know what neoconservatism is; and she makes no effort
to find out."[17]
Robert Cole from
The
Times said, "Klein derides the 'disaster capitalism complex' and
the profits and privatisations that go with it but she does not supply a
cogently argued critique of free market principles, and without this
The Shock Doctrine descends into a muddle of stories that are often
worrying, sometimes interesting, and occasionally bizarre."[18]
Economist
Tyler Cowen, who called Klein's rhetoric "ridiculous" and the book a
"true economics disaster", says that the book contains "a series of
fabricated claims, such as the suggestion that
Margaret Thatcher created the
Falkland Islands crisis to crush the unions and foist unfettered
capitalism upon an unwilling British public."[19]
Fred Kaplan said that Naomi Klein's depiction of the
1993 Russian constitutional crisis as a "clash between Chicago-style
capitalists and honorable, fledgling democrats" is ludicrous.[20]
Johan Norberg of the
Cato Institute criticizes the book, saying that "Klein's analysis is
hopelessly flawed at virtually every level". Norberg finds fault with
specifics of the analysis, such as of the
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, which he says did not crush
opposition to pro-market reforms, but in fact caused liberalization to
stall for years.[21]
Klein responded on her website to both Norberg and Chait, stating both
had misrepresented her positions. Klein wrote that Norberg had erected a
straw
man by claiming that her book is about one man, Friedman, but that
it is in fact about a "multifaceted ideological trend".[22]
Norberg again responded that Klein "actually defends only one of her
central claims that I criticized. Instead she gives the impression that
I have just tried to find small mistakes here and there in her book."[23]
Awards
See also
Notes and
references
-
^
The Shock Doctrine at the
Internet Movie Database
-
^
Farrell, Paul (2007-10-16).
"War, Terror, Catastrophe: Profiting From 'Disaster Capitalism'".
Dow Jones Business News.
-
^
Gray, John (2007-09-15).
"The End of the World as We Know It". The Guardian.
-
^
Kowinski, William S. (2007-09-23).
"Klein alleges U.S. used 'Shock' tactics to privatize public
sector". The San Francisco Chronicle.
-
^
village voice > books > The Best of 2007
-
^
PW's Best Books of the Year – 11/5/2007 – Publishers Weekly
-
^
"That's the best thing we've read all year". The Guardian
(London). 2007-11-25.
Retrieved 2010-05-25.
-
^
"Seattle Times book reviewers pick 2007 favorites". The
Seattle Times. 2007-12-14.
-
^
Clonan, Tom (2007-09-29).
"Making capital out of fear". The Irish Times.
-
^
Guest, Katy (2008-08-23).
"Milton Friedman’s Afterlife". London: The Independent.
-
^
Amidon, Stephen (2007-09-19).
"Milton Friedman’s Afterlife". New York Observer.
-
^
Stiglitz, Joseph (2007-09-30).
"Bleakonomics". New York Times.
-
^
"Doing Well by Doing Ill".
The Washington Post. 2007-11-25.
Retrieved 2010-05-25.
-
^
Holmes, Stephen (2008-05-08).
"Free Marketeering".
-
^
The profits of doom – John Willman,
Financial Times, October 20, 2007
-
^
It’s All a Grand Capitalist Conspiracy – Tom Redburn, New
York Times, September 29, 2007
-
^
Chait, Jonathan (2008-07-30).
"Dead Left".
The New Republic.
Retrieved 2009-11-26.
-
^
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by
Naomi Klein,
The Times, October 12, 2007.
-
^
Cowen, Tyler (2007-10-03).
"Shock Jock".
-
^
Kaplan, Fred (2007-10-02).
"Blame Yeltsin". Slate.
-
^
"The Klein Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Polemics".
Cato Institute. Retrieved
2008-08-28.
-
^
"One Year After the Publication of The Shock Doctrine, A
Response to the Attacks".
Retrieved 2008-10-27.
-
^
"Three Days After Klein's Response, Another Attack".
Cato Institute. Retrieved
2008-09-05.
External links
Reviews and
interviews