Samir Amin
Encyclopedia
Samir Amin (born 3 September 1931) is an Egypt
ian economist. He currently lives in Dakar
, Senegal
.
, the son of an Egyptian father and a French mother (both medical doctors). He spent his childhood and youth in Port Said
; there he attended a French High School, leaving in 1947 with a Baccalauréat
. From 1947 to 1957 he studied in Paris, gaining a diploma in political science (1952) before graduating in statistics (1956) and economics (1957). In his autobiography Itinéraire intellectuel (1990) he wrote that in order to spend a substantial amount of time in "militant action" he could devote only a minimum of time to preparing for his university exams.
Arriving in Paris, Amin joined the French Communist Party
(PCF), but he later distanced himself from Soviet Marxism and associated himself for some time with Maoist circles. With other students he published a magazine entitled;Étudiants Anticolonialistes. In 1957 he presented his thesis, supervised by François Perroux
among others, originally titled The origins of underdevelopment - capitalist accumulation on a world scale but retitled The structural effects of the international integration of precapitalist economies. A theoretical study of the mechanism which creates so-called underdeveloped economies.
After finishing his thesis, Amin went back to Cairo, where he worked from 1957 to 1960 as a research officer for the government's "Institution for Economic Management". Subsequently Amin left Cairo, to become an adviser to the Ministry of Planning in Bamako
(Mali
) from 1960 to 1963. In 1963 he was offered a fellowship at the Institut Africain de Développement Économique et de Planification (IDEP). Until 1970 he worked there as well as being a professor at the university of Poitiers
, Dakar
and Paris (of Paris VIII, Vincennes). In 1970 he became director of the IDEP, which he managed until 1980. In 1980 Amin left the IDEP and became a director of the Third World Forum in Dakar.
For Samir Amin (1997), the ascent and decline is largely determined in our age by the following ‘five monopolies’
The economic performance over the last few years teaches us an important lesson about the evolving mechanisms of the future Kondratieff cycle
, that began in the mid-1980s. Let us recall, that for Dependency
and World Systems theory in the tradition of Samir Amin (1975), there are four main characteristics of the peripheral societal formation:
In partial accordance with liberal thought, (i) and (iii) explain the tendency towards low savings; thus there will be
In the peripheral countries. High imports of the periphery, and hence, in the long run, capital imports, are the consequence of the already existing structural deformations of the role of peripheries in the world system, namely by
The history of periphery capitalism, Amin argues, is full of short-term ‘miracles’ and long-term blocks, stagnation and even regression.
leads its struggle on the terrain of culture
, wherein "culture" is intended as "belongingness to one religion".
Islamist militants are not actually interested in the discussion of dogmas which form religion but on the contrary they're concerned about the ritual assertion of membership in the community. Such a world's vision is therefore not only distressing as it conceals an immense poverty of thought, but it also justifies Imperialism
's strategy of substituting a "conflict of cultures" for a conflict between the imperialist centres and the dominated peripheries.
This importance attributed to culture allows Political Islam to obscure from every sphere of life the realistic social dichotomy between the working classes and the global capitalist system which oppresses and exploits the formers.
The militants of political Islam are only present in areas of conflict in order to furnish people with education and health care, through schools and health clinics. However, these are nothing more than works of charity and means of indoctrination, insofar as they are not means of support for the working class struggle against the system which is responsible for its misery.
Besides, beyond being reactionary on definite matters (see the status of women in Islam
) and responsible for fanatical excesses against non-Muslim citizen (such as the Copts in Egypt), political Islam even defends the sacred character of property and legimitises inequality and all the prerequisites of capitalist reproduction.
One example is the Muslim Brotherhood
's support in the Egyptian parliament for conservative and reactionary laws which empowers the rights of property owners, to the detriment of the small peasantry.
Political Islam has also always found consent in the bourgeoisie of Saudi Arabia
and Pakistan
, as the latter abandoned an anti-imperialist perspective and substituted it for an anti-western stance, which only takes into an impasse and therefore doesn't represent any obstacle to the developing imperialist control over the world system:)
Hence, political Islam aligns itself in general with capitalism
and imperialism
, without providing the working classes with an effective and non-reactionary method of struggle against their exploitation
.
It is important to note, however, that Amin is careful to distinguish his analysis of political islam from islamophobia
, thus remaining sensitive to the anti-Muslim attitudes that currently affect Western Society.
http://aakarbooks.com/content/empire-chaos
Critical review
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian economist. He currently lives in Dakar
Dakar
Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
, Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
.
Biography
Samir Amin was born in CairoCairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, the son of an Egyptian father and a French mother (both medical doctors). He spent his childhood and youth in Port Said
Port Said
Port Said is a city that lies in north east Egypt extending about 30 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal, with an approximate population of 603,787...
; there he attended a French High School, leaving in 1947 with a Baccalauréat
Baccalauréat
The baccalauréat , often known in France colloquially as le bac, is an academic qualification which French and international students take at the end of the lycée . It was introduced by Napoleon I in 1808. It is the main diploma required to pursue university studies...
. From 1947 to 1957 he studied in Paris, gaining a diploma in political science (1952) before graduating in statistics (1956) and economics (1957). In his autobiography Itinéraire intellectuel (1990) he wrote that in order to spend a substantial amount of time in "militant action" he could devote only a minimum of time to preparing for his university exams.
Arriving in Paris, Amin joined the French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
(PCF), but he later distanced himself from Soviet Marxism and associated himself for some time with Maoist circles. With other students he published a magazine entitled;Étudiants Anticolonialistes. In 1957 he presented his thesis, supervised by François Perroux
François Perroux
François Perroux was a French economist. He was named Professor at the Collège de France, after having taught at the University of Lyon and the University of Paris...
among others, originally titled The origins of underdevelopment - capitalist accumulation on a world scale but retitled The structural effects of the international integration of precapitalist economies. A theoretical study of the mechanism which creates so-called underdeveloped economies.
After finishing his thesis, Amin went back to Cairo, where he worked from 1957 to 1960 as a research officer for the government's "Institution for Economic Management". Subsequently Amin left Cairo, to become an adviser to the Ministry of Planning in Bamako
Bamako
Bamako is the capital of Mali and its largest city with a population of 1.8 million . Currently, it is estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa and sixth fastest in the world...
(Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
) from 1960 to 1963. In 1963 he was offered a fellowship at the Institut Africain de Développement Économique et de Planification (IDEP). Until 1970 he worked there as well as being a professor at the university of Poitiers
Poitiers
Poitiers is a city on the Clain river in west central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and of the Poitou-Charentes region. The centre is picturesque and its streets are interesting for predominant remains of historical architecture, especially from the Romanesque...
, Dakar
Dakar
Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
and Paris (of Paris VIII, Vincennes). In 1970 he became director of the IDEP, which he managed until 1980. In 1980 Amin left the IDEP and became a director of the Third World Forum in Dakar.
Work
Samir Amin has written more than 30 books including Imperialism & Unequal Development, Specters of Capitalism: A Critique of Current Intellectual Fashions, Obsolescent Capitalism: Contemporary Politics and Global Disorder and The Liberal Virus. His memoirs were published in October 2006.For Samir Amin (1997), the ascent and decline is largely determined in our age by the following ‘five monopolies’
- the monopoly of technology, supported by military expenditures of the dominant nations
- the monopoly of control over global finances and a strong position in the hierarchy of current account balances
- the monopoly of access to natural resources
- the monopoly over international communication and the media
- the monopoly of the military means of mass destruction
The economic performance over the last few years teaches us an important lesson about the evolving mechanisms of the future Kondratieff cycle
Kondratiev wave
Kondratiev waves are described as sinusoidal-like cycles in the modern capitalist world economy...
, that began in the mid-1980s. Let us recall, that for Dependency
Dependency theory
Dependency theory or dependencia theory is a body of social science theories predicated on the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former...
and World Systems theory in the tradition of Samir Amin (1975), there are four main characteristics of the peripheral societal formation:
- the predominance of agrarian capitalism in the ‘national’ sector
- the formation of a local bourgeoisie, which is dependent from foreign capital, especially in the trading sector
- the tendency of bureaucratization
- specific and incomplete forms of proletarisation of the labor force
In partial accordance with liberal thought, (i) and (iii) explain the tendency towards low savings; thus there will be
- huge state sector deficits and, in addition, their ‘twin’
- chronic current account balance deficits
In the peripheral countries. High imports of the periphery, and hence, in the long run, capital imports, are the consequence of the already existing structural deformations of the role of peripheries in the world system, namely by
- rapid urbanization, combined with an insufficient local production of food
- excessive expenditures of the local bureaucracies
- changes in income distribution to the benefit of the local elites (demonstration effects)
- insufficient growth of and structural imbalances in the industrial sector
- and the following reliance on foreign assistance
The history of periphery capitalism, Amin argues, is full of short-term ‘miracles’ and long-term blocks, stagnation and even regression.
Samir Amin's views on Political Islam
According to Samir Amin, IslamIslam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
leads its struggle on the terrain of culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
, wherein "culture" is intended as "belongingness to one religion".
Islamist militants are not actually interested in the discussion of dogmas which form religion but on the contrary they're concerned about the ritual assertion of membership in the community. Such a world's vision is therefore not only distressing as it conceals an immense poverty of thought, but it also justifies Imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
's strategy of substituting a "conflict of cultures" for a conflict between the imperialist centres and the dominated peripheries.
This importance attributed to culture allows Political Islam to obscure from every sphere of life the realistic social dichotomy between the working classes and the global capitalist system which oppresses and exploits the formers.
The militants of political Islam are only present in areas of conflict in order to furnish people with education and health care, through schools and health clinics. However, these are nothing more than works of charity and means of indoctrination, insofar as they are not means of support for the working class struggle against the system which is responsible for its misery.
Besides, beyond being reactionary on definite matters (see the status of women in Islam
Women in Islam
The study of women in Islam investigates the role of women within the religion of Islam. The complex relationship between women and Islam is defined by Islamic texts, the history and culture of the Muslim world...
) and responsible for fanatical excesses against non-Muslim citizen (such as the Copts in Egypt), political Islam even defends the sacred character of property and legimitises inequality and all the prerequisites of capitalist reproduction.
One example is the Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
's support in the Egyptian parliament for conservative and reactionary laws which empowers the rights of property owners, to the detriment of the small peasantry.
Political Islam has also always found consent in the bourgeoisie of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, as the latter abandoned an anti-imperialist perspective and substituted it for an anti-western stance, which only takes into an impasse and therefore doesn't represent any obstacle to the developing imperialist control over the world system:)
Hence, political Islam aligns itself in general with capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
, without providing the working classes with an effective and non-reactionary method of struggle against their exploitation
Exploitation
This article discusses the term exploitation in the meaning of using something in an unjust or cruel manner.- As unjust benefit :In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for...
.
It is important to note, however, that Amin is careful to distinguish his analysis of political islam from islamophobia
Islamophobia
Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or MuslimsThe term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States....
, thus remaining sensitive to the anti-Muslim attitudes that currently affect Western Society.
Footnotes
http://aakarbooks.com/content/world-we-wish-see-revolutionary-objectives-twenty-first-century-0http://aakarbooks.com/content/empire-chaos
Publications by Samir Amin
- 1957, Les effets structurels de l’intégration internationale des économies précapitalistes. Une étude théorique du mécanisme qui a engendré les éonomies dites sous-développées (thesis)
- 1965, Trois expériences africaines de développement: le Mali, la Guinée et le Ghana
- 1966, L’économie du Maghreb, 2 vols.
- 1967, Le développement du capitalisme en Côte d'Ivoire
- 1969, Le monde des affaires sénégalais
- 1969, The Class struggle in Africa http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/20606299
- 1970, Le Maghreb moderne (translation: The Magrheb in the Modern World)
- 1970, L’accumulation à l’échelle mondiale (translation: Accumulation on a world scale)
- 1970, with C. Coquery-Vidrovitch, Histoire économique du Congo 1880-1968
- 1971, L’Afrique de l’Ouest bloquée
- 1973, Le développement inégal (translation: Unequal development)
- 1973, L’échange inégal et la loi de la valeur
- 1973, Neocolonialism in West Africa http://www.marx.org/history//etol/newspape/isj/1974/no070/clenaghen.htm
- 1973, 'Le developpement inegal. Essai sur les formations sociales du capitalisme peripherique' Paris: Editions de Minuit.
- 1973, L’échange inégal et la loi de la valeur
- 1974, with K. Vergopoulos): La question paysanne et le capitalisme
- 1975, with A. Faire, M. Hussein and G. Massiah): La crise de l‘impérialisme
- 1976, ‘Unequal Development: An Essay on the Social Formations of Peripheral Capitalism’ New York: Monthly Review Press.
- 1976, L’impérialisme et le développement inégal (translation: Imperialism and unequal development)
- 1976, La nation arabe (translation: The Arab Nation)
- 1977, La loi de la valeur et le matérialisme historique (translation: The law of value and historical materialism)
- 1979, Classe et nation dans l’histoire et la crise contemporaine (translation: Class and nation, historically and in the current crisis)
- 1980, L’économie arabe contemporaine (translation: The Arab economy today)
- 1981, L’avenir du Maoïsme (translation: The Future of Maoism)
- 1982, Irak et Syrie 1960 - 1980
- 1982, with G. Arrighi, A. G. Frank and I. Wallerstein): La crise, quelle crise? (translation: Crisis, what crisis?)
- 1984, 'Was kommt nach der Neuen Internationalen Wirtschaftsordnung? Die Zukunft der Weltwirtschaft' in 'Rote Markierungen International' (Fischer H. and Jankowitsch P. (Eds.)), pp. 89 – 110, Vienna: Europaverlag.
- 1984, Transforming the world-economy? : nine critical essays on the new international economic order.
- 1985, La déconnexion (translation: Delinking: towards a polycentric world)
- 1988, Impérialisme et sous-développement en Afrique (expanded edition of 1976)
- 1988, L’eurocentrisme (translation: Eurocentrism)
- 1988, with F. Yachir): La Méditerranée dans le système mondial
- 1989, La faillite du développement en Afrique et dans le tiers monde]
- 1990, Transforming the revolution: social movements and the world system
- 1990, Itinéraire intellectual; regards sur le demi-siecle 1945-90 (translation: Re-reading the post-war period: an Intellectual Itinerary)
- 1991, L’Empire du chaos (translation: Empire of chaos)
- 1991, Les enjeux stratégiques en Méditerranée
- 1991, with G. Arrighi, A. G. Frank et I. Wallerstein): Le grand tumulte
- 1992, 'Empire of Chaos' New York: Monthly Review Press. http://www.librarything.com/work/1479902
- 1994, L’Ethnie à l’assaut des nations
- 1995, La gestion capitaliste de la crise
- 1996, Les défis de la mondialisation
- 1997, ‘Die Zukunft des Weltsystems. Herausforderungen der Globalisierung. Herausgegeben und aus dem Franzoesischen uebersetzt von Joachim Wilke’ Hamburg: VSA.
- 1997, Critique de l’air du temps
- 1999, "Judaism, Christianity and Islam: An Introductory Approach to their Real or Supposed Specificities by a Non-Theologian" in "Global capitalism, liberation theology, and the social sciences: An analysis of the contradictions of modernity at the turn of the millennium" (Andreas Mueller, Arno Tausch and Paul Zulehner (Eds.)), Nova Science Publishers, Hauppauge, Commack, New York
- 1999, Spectres of capitalism: a critique of current intellectual fashions
- 2000, L’hégémonisme des États-Unis et l’effacement du projet européen
- 2002, Mondialisation, comprehendre pour agir
- 2003, Obsolescent Capitalism
- 2004, The Liberal Virus: Permanent War and the Americanization of the World
- 2005, with Ali El Kenz, Europe and the Arab world; patterns and prospects for the new relationship
- 2006, Beyond US Hegemony: Assessing the Prospects for a Multipolar World
- 2008, with James Membrez, The World We Wish to See: Revolutionary Objectives in the Twenty-First Century
- 2009, 'Aid for Development' in 'Aid to Africa: Redeemer or Coloniser?' Oxford: Pambazuka Press http://fahamubooks.org/
- 2010, 'Eurocentrism - Modernity, Religion and Democracy: A Critique of Eurocentrism and Culturalism' 2nd edition, Oxford: Pambazuka Press http://fahamubooks.org/
- 2010, 'Ending the Crisis of Capitalism or Ending Capitalism?' Oxford: Pambazuka Press http://fahamubooks.org/
- 2010, 'Global History - a View from the South' Oxford: Pambazuka Press http://fahamubooks.org/
- 2011, 'Maldevelopment - Anatomy of a Global Failure' 2nd edition, Oxford: Pambazuka Press http://fahamubooks.org/
Writings about Samir Amin
- Aidan Forster-Carter: The Empirical Samir Amin, in S. Amin: The Arab Economy Today, London 1982, pp. 1 – 40
- Duru Tobi: On Amin's Concepts - autocentric/ blocked development in Historical Perspectives, in: Economic Papers (Warsaw), Nr. 15, 1987, pp. 143 – 163
- Fouhad Nohra: Théories du capitalisme mondial. Paris 1997
- Gerald M. Meier, Dudley Seers (eds.): Pioneers in Development. Oxford 1984
External links
Some writings by Samir Amin available on-line- http://aakarbooks.com/content/world-we-wish-see-revolutionary-objectives-twenty-first-century-0
- http://aakarbooks.com/content/empire-chaos
- A Critique of the Stiglitz Report: The limits of liberal orthodoxy http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/58453
- The American Ideology http://www.williambowles.info/guests/am_ideology.html
- Third World Forum: An Interview with Samir Amin http://www.zmag.org/zmag/viewArticle/13656]
- Imperialism and Globalization http://www.rrojasdatabank.org/impglob.htm
- Empire of Chaos Challenged: An Interview with Samir Amin http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2002/609/intrvw.htm
- Maldevelopment: Anatomy of a Global Failure http://www.rrojasdatabank.org/uu32me00.htm#Contents
- U.S. Imperialism, Europe, and the Middle East http://www.monthlyreview.org/1104amin.htm
- India, a Great Power? http://www.monthlyreview.org/0205amin.htm
- Imperialism and Globalization http://www.monthlyreview.org/0601amin.htm
- World Poverty, Pauperization & Capital Accumulation
- http://www.monthlyreview.org/1003amin.htm
- U.S. Hegemony and the Response to Terror http://www.monthlyreview.org/1101amin.htm
- Empire and Multitude http://www.monthlyreview.org/1105amin.htm
- A Note on the Death of André Gunder Frank (1929–2005) http://www.monthlyreview.org/0405amin.htm
- The Political Economy of the Twentieth Century http://www.monthlyreview.org/600amin.htm
- Africa: Living on the Fringe http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1132/is_10_53/ai_84184716#continue
- Samir Amin: The New Challenge of the Peoples’ Internationalism http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/article826.html
- The Contours of an Aid Alternative: An Abrupt Rupture? http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/57938
Critical review
- A review of Samir Amin's Re-reading the Postwar Period: An Intellectual Itinerary
- http://home.flash.net/~comvoice/12cAmin.html