Conquering, Comprador, or Competitive: The National Bourgeoisie in the Developing World

Abstract

This paper documents and accounts for the globalization of the so-called national bourgeoisie in the late twentieth century. A substantial and growing body of sociological literature holds that firms and investors from the developing world have been denationalized, neutered, or destroyed by their efforts to penetrate international markets – and that cross-national economic competition is therefore giving way to transnational class conflict over time. By way of contrast, I hold that not only peripheral capitalists but their elected and appointed representatives are compelled to undertake large-scale, fixed investments, exploit their competitive advantages, and challenge foreign firms – and their respective representatives – on their own soil by the very logic of capitalist competition, and that the aforementioned challenges will occur on political as well as economic terrain.

Citation

Schrank, A. (2005), "Conquering, Comprador, or Competitive: The National Bourgeoisie in the Developing World", Buttel, F.H. and McMichael, P. (Ed.) New Directions in the Sociology of Global Development (Research in Rural Sociology and Development, Vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 91-120. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1057-1922(05)11004-X