The papers collected in this Symposium issue represent a wide range of disciplines, positions and philosophies, and reflect the views of scholars from five countries (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, the United States and Venezuela).
These papers reflect a range of thinking about the  freedom  that the free market is said to bring, from deeply analytical reflections to more focused case studies. In this, they reflect an equally rich series of panels and discussions that happened over three days spent in Bogota, in May 2006. These conversations, held in the comfortable surroundings of the tranquil campus of the Universidad de los Andes, went well beyond the confines of the papers presented here, and it is a pity that circumstances did not permit the full range of interesting presentations to see the light of day. Nonetheless, it is fair to say that the present volume captures the richness of that encounter, one that welcomed scholars from seven countries and nearly as many disciplines, including law, economics, sociology, anthropology and psychology

Crawford, Colin

Gonzalez, Carmen G.

Maldonado, Daniel Bonilla

English

Golden Gate University School of Law: Digital Commons

Golden Gate University School of Law GGU Law Digital Commons Publications Faculty Scholarship 2007 Reality, Theory, and a Make-Believe World: The Fundamentalism of the Free Market Colin Crawford Daniel Bonilla Maldonado Carmen G. Gonzalez Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/pubs  Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, and the Commercial Law Commons DATE DOWNLOADED: Mon Mar 29 18:48:27 2021SOURCE: Content Downloaded from HeinOnlineCitations:Bluebook 21st ed.			                                                                Daniel Bonilla Maldonado, Colin Crawford & Carmen G. Gonzalez, Reality, Theory, and aMake-Believe World: The Fundamentalism of the Free Market, 5 Seattle J. Soc. Just.499 (2007).                                                                          ALWD 6th ed.                                                                         Maldonado, D.; Crawford, C.; Gonzalez, C. G., Reality, theory, and a make-believeworld: The fundamentalism of the free market, 5(2) Seattle J. Soc. Just. 499 (2007). APA 7th ed.                                                                          Maldonado, D., Crawford, C., & Gonzalez, C. G. (2007). Reality, theory, andmake-believe world: The fundamentalism of the free market. Seattle Journal for SocialJustice, 5(2), 499-504.                                                              Chicago 17th ed.                                                                     Daniel Bonilla Maldonado; Colin Crawford; Carmen G. Gonzalez, "Reality, Theory, and aMake-Believe World: The Fundamentalism of the Free Market," Seattle Journal forSocial Justice 5, no. 2 (Spring/Summer 2007): 499-504                                McGill Guide 9th ed.                                                                 Daniel Bonilla Maldonado, Colin Crawford & Carmen G Gonzalez, "Reality, Theory, and aMake-Believe World: The Fundamentalism of the Free Market" (2007) 5:2 Seattle J SocJust 499.                                                                            AGLC 4th ed.                                                                         Daniel Bonilla Maldonado, Colin Crawford and Carmen G Gonzalez, 'Reality, Theory, anda Make-Believe World: The Fundamentalism of the Free Market' (2007) 5(2) SeattleJournal for Social Justice 499.                                                      MLA 8th ed.                                                                          Maldonado, Daniel Bonilla, et al. "Reality, Theory, and a Make-Believe World: TheFundamentalism of the Free Market." Seattle Journal for Social Justice, vol. 5, no.2, Spring/Summer 2007, p. 499-504. HeinOnline.                                       OSCOLA 4th ed.                                                                       Daniel Bonilla Maldonado and Colin Crawford and Carmen G Gonzalez, 'Reality, Theory,and a Make-Believe World: The Fundamentalism of the Free Market' (2007) 5 Seattle JSoc Just 499Provided by: Golden Gate University School of Law Library-- Your use of this HeinOnline PDF indicates your acceptance of HeinOnline's Terms and    Conditions of the license agreement available at https://heinonline.org/HOL/License-- The search text of this PDF is generated from  uncorrected OCR text.-- To obtain permission to use this article beyond the scope of your  license, please use:Copyright InformationReality, Theory, and a Make-Believe World:The Fundamentalism of the "Free" MarketDaniel Bonilla MaldonadoColin Crawford &Carmen G. GonzalezStarbucks, the Seattle-based coffee retailer and merchandiser, began acampaign not long ago called "The Way I See It." In the campaign,inspirational, feel-good sentiments from celebrities and "ordinary" folks areprinted on the sides of its millions of coffee cups, for the consumer to readand consider. The campaign is undeniably clever. It gives the coffeedrinker something to reflect upon and implicitly connects Starbucks to thesethoughts-suggesting that Starbucks is also a purveyor of Good Ideas.One recent entry in the "The Way I See It" campaign-number 221 to beexact-came from one Carlos Rivera, identified in English on the cup as the"General Manager of Coope Tarrazu, a coffee-farming cooperative in CostaRica." The Way Rivera Sees It is as follows: "Sustainable production issomething that the producers of Tarraz6 do because they realize that it is theonly way to assure that the new generations can produce coffee, have betterliving conditions and continue to live in the Tarraz6 region."What is particularly striking about this message is not its incontestabletruth; indeed, the term "sustainability" is so widely used these days that thenotion is uncontroversial without further definition. Rather, what is unusualabout this message is that it appeared on the sides of (presumably)thousands, if not millions, of Starbucks coffee cups-printed in Spanish.'The Starbucks coffee cup is connected to the theme of this conferencebecause it is a symbol of economic globalization. Regrettably, much of thisunprecedented expansion of global commerce has occurred under theauspices of "fundamentalist" thinking about the benefits of the "free500 SEATTLE JOURNAL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICEmarket" as the engine of economic advancement. In many comers of theglobe, and particularly in so-called "less developed" countries, free marketfundamentalism (known more commonly as the neoliberal economicmodel) can be crudely characterized as a move to privatize sluggish statesectors and minimize government interference in the market in order toachieve economic prosperity. The "fundamentalist" thinking that thisconference sought to examine and critique, however, is also characteristic ofthe so-called "developed" nations, as evidenced by the efforts of formerU.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair topromote market-based economic reforms.What does this have to do with a Starbucks coffee cup? In brief, thatcoffee cup represents the benevolent depiction of globalization that thisconference and the papers published in this volume seek to interrogate.Appropriately, the coffee cup comes from a company based in Seattle (thephysical home of the Seattle Journal of Social Justice), a city within theterritorial boundaries of the United States. The coffee cup was designed tocarry a product for which the host country of the conference, Colombia, isjustly famous, and which represents one of the country's prime, legal exportcrops. In addition, the cup reflects that even in the United States, whereEnglish has long been regarded as the linguistic glue holding the countrytogether, the increasingly heterogeneous nature of the U.S. populationnecessitates corporate sensitivity to the tastes-and language preferences-of its ever-widening customer base. More questionable is whetherStarbucks, with its enormous influence on world coffee markets, is trulycommitted to "sustainable" coffee production (like that said to occur inCosta Rica at Tarrazu6) in all of its coffee purchasing.As the papers collected in this volume make clear, notwithstanding thepublic relations campaign represented by Carlos Rivera's views on the sideof a Starbucks coffee cup, the failure of states, corporations, andinternational trade and financial institutions to address the negative social,economic, cultural and environmental consequences of "free market"SYMPOSIUM ISSUEIntroduction 501policies has had adverse repercussions on the lives and livelihoods of muchof the world's population. Indeed, as many of the papers suggest, themarket may not in fact be "free" at all, but an ideological construct thatharms millions and metaphorically imprisons them in low-paying jobs withpoor working conditions and in unhealthy living environments.The papers collected here represent a wide range of disciplines, positionsand philosophies, and reflect the views of scholars from five countries(Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, the United States and Venezuela).The works themselves can be roughly divided into four generalcategories, although there is unquestionably overlap between thesecategories. First, the papers of Frank Garcia and Maria Paula Saffonprovide a critical look at the theory of free trade and the extent to which itcorresponds to social and economic reality. For example, Garcia questionswhether the neoliberal trading system can be described as "free" in anymeaningful sense. He concludes that the rhetoric of free trade is often usedto mask transactions and interactions characterized by exploitation,coercion, and predation. Similarly, Saffon's paper helps us understand therole of the judiciary in cementing this notion of "freedom." Saffonexamines whether judicial enforcement of social and economic rights canserve as a means of resisting neoliberal ideas and policies or whether theenforcement of such rights ultimately legitimates neoliberalism bymitigating some of its harshest social consequences. Saffon's paper deftlymoves from theory to specific examples, using the decisions of Colombia'sConstitutional Court as a case study and locating the Colombian situation inthe larger context of global financial and political pressures.In an equally theoretical vein with similarly great practical implications,Alejandro Nadal's piece makes a powerful case against the "law andeconomics" ideology that has besotted so many policy-makers and legalscholars in recent decades. As Nadal demonstrates with exquisite skill, thetheoretical underpinnings of the dominant interpretation of law andeconomics have serious flaws, and often generate unjust results. Thus,VOLUME 5 - ISSUE 2 - 2007502 SEATTLE JOURNAL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICENadal asks us to reconsider the very bedrock upon which rest so many ofthe justifications for free market policies and their legal and regulatorymanifestations.Second, the papers of Elvia Arriola and Claudia Lozano powerfullydemonstrate that free trade has cultural and social consequences that canexacerbate physical violence against vulnerable populations. These papersstudy the darker side of one of the celebrated benefits of trade liberalization:greater employment opportunities for women. An often celebrated featureof globalization is that it has allowed women to increase their earningpower as multinational corporations relocate to poorer countries to takeadvantage of lower labor costs. In their studies of different cultural contextsand conditions, Arriola and Lozano demonstrate that a tragic consequenceof these supposedly more open markets is that women become ever morepowerless, ever less free, as they are subject to increased domestic violence,physical harm, and even death. Thus, their papers suggest, free tradepolicies may reinforce male dominance rather than leading to true socialand economic equality.Third, in the context of global environmental degradation, KristenSheeran's paper reflects another major theme of the conference, the socialand environmental consequences of free trade. Sheeran examines the needfor equity as well as efficiency in finding solutions to climate change. Likemany of the other conference papers, Sheeran's piece emphasizes the needto rethink the "free" in "free trade" in order to ensure that market-basedmechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in any post-Kyoto climatechange treaty do not reinforce poverty and inequality.Fourth and finally, a number of the papers collected here, like thepresentations delivered at the conference, may be understood as case studieson the consequences of free market economic reforms. Thus, for example,Diogo Coutinho and Alexandre Faraco's paper on the deregulation oftelephone markets in Brazil highlights the impacts of this regulatory reformon the poorest sectors of their society, and those who are most physicallySYMPOSIUM ISSUEIntroduction 503remote from the centers of power. Conversely, Alan Cibils and Ruben LoVuolo provide a revisionist look at the Argentine debt crisis, documentingthe nation's decision to reject the received wisdom of global financialinstitutions in order to protect the interests of Argentine citizens. As Cibilsand Lo Vuolo demonstrate, Argentine authorities concluded that it wasunjust for the nation to abide by the rules of a financial game set by"developed" countries on a playing field that was, from the start, anythingbut fair and level. Finally, Roldan Muradian analyzes the impact onMesoamerica of China's increasingly important role in international trade.Muradian concludes that trade liberalization, which pits regions of theworld against one another, is likely to harm poorer nations by preventingthem from diversifying and industrializing their economic base.In sum, these papers reflect a range of thinking about the "freedom" thatthe free market is said to bring, from deeply analytical reflections to morefocused case studies. In this, they reflect an equally rich series of panelsand discussions that happened over three days spent in Bogota, in May2006. These conversations, held in the comfortable surroundings of thetranquil campus of the Universidad de los Andes, went well beyond theconfines of the papers presented here, and it is a pity that circumstances didnot permit the full range of interesting presentations to see the light of day.Nonetheless, it is fair to say that the present volume captures the richness ofthat encounter, one that welcomed scholars from seven countries and nearlyas many disciplines, including law, economics, sociology, anthropology andpsychology.Before closing this introduction, it is important to acknowledge some ofthe support that helped make this conference possible. Dean Dennis Lynchand the University of Miami School of Law provided financial supportessential to assure the participation of scholars from the global South, as didDean Kellye Y. Testy and the Seattle University School of Law. Theencounter could not have been possible at all without the inspiration andsupport-financial, intellectual, and ideological-of Latina & LatinoVOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 * 2007504 SEATTLE JOURNAL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICECritical Theory, Inc.,2 and particularly its guiding spirit, Professor FrankValdes. The Law Faculty of the Universidad de los Andes and its Dean,Eduardo Cifuentes, were amiable and generous hosts, and one could hardlyask for a more gracious reception. Following the conference, we were allterrifically impressed by the energy and intelligence of Erin Crisman-Glassand the editorial staff of the Seattle Journal for Social Justice. Finally, wewould be remiss if we did not record our mutual pleasure at this chance towork together. It is a rare experience for three busy people to undertakework on a project with near total unanimity of purpose and seamlessexecution of a shared vision. Such experiences are not routine in academicor any other kind of work, and we are grateful to one another for theopportunity to have spent that time working together.We very much hope you enjoy and benefit from the essays that follow,and invite you to join us in future meetings of the South-North Exchange onLaw, Theory & Culture, an annual project of"LatCrit, Inc."1 La producci6n sostenible es algo que los productores de Tarraz6 hacen porque se dancuenta que es la 6nica manera de asegurar que las nuevas generaciones puedan producircaf6, tener mejores condiciones de vida y permanecer como ciudadanos de la regi6n deTarraz.2 http://www.latcrit.org/SYMPOSIUM ISSUE

Reality, Theory, and a Make-Believe World: The Fundamentalism of the Free Market

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Reality, Theory, and a Make-Believe World: The Fundamentalism of the Free Market

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