Modern Theories

Modern Theories
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Question 1
In the Babylon system: The continuity of Slavery, Winant, (1986) articulates that the global crisis of debt espionage is one form of modern racial slavery. This happens in the sense of domination or exploitation, imposed unfreedom, towards people of a particular race, especially those from the southern part of the world (282). Although the governments in such countries may be happy to receive loans, and credits from the West, in most cases, it is the citizens of such countries who have to struggle in paying for the loans. Foreign loans are intended to better the lives of individuals in the specific countries. However, much of the aid or loans end up in the hands of some elite officials in the country. This means that citizens are deprived of such intended benefit. Additionally, a large amount of this money is again transferred to foreign bank accounts and investments. While the foreign loans end up becoming private assets, the debts accrued from such loans remain public, and the African citizens are held accountable to repay these debts through their governments (p284).
It is apparent that many of such states may be unable to repay such loans and debts. However,” loan pushing” by private entities such as the World Bank and other financial institutions, where priority is considered to lending targets over long term projection for repayment, has resulted into many countries to delve more deeper in repaying the debt. Just taking an example of Zimbabwe, the nation's external debt surpasses its gross domestic products by 186% according to analysts (p284).
Question 2
What does Winant mean by macro-level debt peonage?
According to Winant, themes such as super exploitation of labor, plunder and transition from chattellized mass labor to debt peonage ought to be considered at both the macro and micro- social level. At the Macro level, endemic and large-scale debt indebtedness appears to be widespread throughout the Southern world such as Africa, Southern Asia, and Latin America (Winant, 1986, p282). These world regions according to Winant have continued to experience debt crises in both the period superseding World War 2 and the modern era. What Winant means in macro level debt peonage is the massive effect of debt peonage slavery in nations especially those in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America which has become so perverse. For instance, Winant argues that the annual African debt in 2002 was a whopping 125%. On the other hand, the figure for Asia was 28%, and 42% for Latin America. Poor countries have become heavily indebted to the extent of relying on earnings from experts in paying for their international debt (Winant, 1986, p282)
Question 3
Winant considers the modern debt peonage as racial form of slavery since it affects particular groups of people. In partic...