Neocolonialism

Introduction Neocolonialism is the practice of using capitalism, globalization, and cultural forces to control a country (usually former European colonies in Africa or Asia) in lieu of direct military or political control. Such control can be economic, cultural, or linguistic; by promoting one’s own culture, language or media in the colony, corporations embedded in that culture can then make greater headway in opening the markets in those countries. Thus, neocolonialism would be the end result of relatively benign business interests leading to deleterious cultural effects.

Neocolonialism describes certain economic operations at the international level which have alleged similarities to the traditional colonialism of the 16th to the 20th centuries. The contention is that governments have aimed to control other nations through indirect means; that in lieu of direct military-political control, neocolonialist powers employ economic, financial, and trade policies to dominate less powerful countries. What is the social phenomena neocolonialism?

It is a set of political, economic, social and colonial arrangements or systems which continue to exist in a society, managed and controlled by little local property-ruling class on behalf of their corresponding foreign property-ruling class. The arrangement is a phenomenon which is heavily imposed on the majority of the people who remain poor, unemployed, low income-earned, unskilled, and uneducated. These arrangements designate a continuation of colonialism wherein the majority of the people are denied control and management of the bulk of their wealth. Describe the origins of neocolonialism.

The political-science term neocolonialism became popular usage in reference to the continued European control the economic, cultural, of African countries that had been decolonized in the aftermath of the Second World War (1939–45). As a political scientist, Nkrumah theoretically developed and extended, to the post–War 20th century, the socio-economic and political arguments presented by Lenin in the pamphlet Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917), about 19th-century imperialism as the logical extension of power to meet the financial investment needs of the political economy of capitalism.

What are the effects of neocolonialism? In effect, third world rulers give concessions and monopolies to foreign corporations in return for consolidation of power and monetary bribes. In most cases, much of the money loaned to these LDCs is returned to the favored foreign corporations. Thus, these foreign loans are, in effect, subsidies to crony corporations of the loaning state’s rulers. This collusion is sometimes referred to as “the corporatocracy. Organizations accused of participating in neo-imperialism include the World Bank, World Trade Organization and Group of Eight, and the World Economic Forum. Various “first world” states, notably the United States, are said to be involved. An insider’s first-hand description of the corporatocracy is described in the book Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins. Name at least one way in which neocolonialism can be rectified?