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2/26/2014 ‘We are in a period of global civil war of low intensity’ | The Indian Express
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Ipsita Chakravarty | February 25, 2014 4:37 pm Print
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‘We will crush these elementsin the electronic media if theycontinue to malign our image’
Excerpts from Union HomeMinister SushilkumarShinde’s speech, deliveredat a Youth Congress rally inSolapur, Maharashtra, onFebruary 23.
Boaventura De Sousa Santos is director, Centre for Social Studies,
University of Coimbra, Portugal. In Delhi for a lecture, he spoke to Ipsita
Chakravarty on the failures of the modern state and why development is
a fallible word:
You have suggested that a certain idea of the modern state has
run up against its limits. How should we begin to rethink this idea?
The idea of the modern state is based on four premises. One, that the
state is an institutional formation, and one of the pillars of modern social
regulation. The other pillars are the market and civil society. There must
be a balance between these pillars. But the balance has been destroyed
in favour of the market. Global capitalism has become the main principle
of social regulation, and the state remains legitimate to the extent that it
serves the market. This is creating problems because the market was
not designed to think of the common good or sovereignty. Two, there
are two markets in a modern state. First, the economic market, where
there are values that have a price tag. The other is the political market,
the market of ideas. These are not for sale. They have to be in
‘We are in a period of global civil war oflow intensity’
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SUMMARY
Boaventura De
Sousa Santos is
director, Centre for
Social Studies,
University of
Coimbra, Portugal.
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Excerpts from Shinde's 'crush elements inelectronic media' speech
Excerpts from Shinde’s
speech, delivered at a Youth
Congress rally in Solapur,
Maharashtra.
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Boaventura De Sousa Santos, Professor of sociology. Express photos
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2/26/2014 ‘We are in a period of global civil war of low intensity’ | The Indian Express
http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/we-are-in-a-period-of-global-civil-war-of-low-intensity/ 2/3
TAGS: Boaventura De Sousa Santos Centre For Social Studies Delhi Lecture Ipsita Chakravarty Portugal
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University Of Coimbra
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Consumers won’t bear thecosts of high bids for 2Gspectrum.
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In fact, we should demandmore frequent applicationof Sections 295A and 153Aagainst influentialoffenders.
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competition through the electoral process. Because the logic of the
economic market is becoming the basis for state action, we have seen
a fusion between the economic market and the political market. So in a
sense, political convictions are up for sale. And we call this corruption.
Three, the monolithic, homogenous state has crushed cultural
diversities. Often, one aspect of national culture was elevated over
others. Four, the idea that the state has three functions. One of
legitimacy, the other of capitalist accumulation. But the state also has a
trust function — to ensure resources for people, to meet needs that may
arise from illness, unemployment, accidents. Since the market now
prevails over regulation, accumulation prevails over other functions. So
the state in many parts of the world has become untrustworthy. I have
been claiming that we are in a period of global civil war of low intensity.
You’ve spoken of ‘revolts of indignation’ that have a generative
potential. But in, say, Egypt, the democratic energies of such a
movement have been mostly frittered away.
These movements know much better what they don’t want than what
they do. About 30-40 years ago, some of these movements would have
a clear idea of an alternative society, premised on socialism. After 1989,
this came to a crisis. Since then there has been no clear alternative.
Some people think they are becoming dangerous. Others like myself
think they are truthful not because they are a solution, but because they
signal the need for one.
In that context, what about the AAP, which seems to believe in
participatory democracy? Recent events suggest they have
transmitted some illiberal impulses into the Indiancontinued…
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2/26/2014 ‘We are in a period of global civil war of low intensity’ | The Indian Express
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