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Shock Doctrine

This document discusses the concept of "disaster capitalism" and "economic shock treatment" where catastrophic events are used to implement free market policies. It provides several examples of this approach, including in Chile under Pinochet, Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, and Thatcher's UK. The policies typically included privatization, deregulation, and cuts to social services. It notes that Milton Friedman and the University of Chicago were influential proponents of these shock therapy economic strategies. The document suggests these shock tactics were used widely in Latin America and other regions in the late 20th century.

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Kristina Belužić
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446 views13 pages

Shock Doctrine

This document discusses the concept of "disaster capitalism" and "economic shock treatment" where catastrophic events are used to implement free market policies. It provides several examples of this approach, including in Chile under Pinochet, Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, and Thatcher's UK. The policies typically included privatization, deregulation, and cuts to social services. It notes that Milton Friedman and the University of Chicago were influential proponents of these shock therapy economic strategies. The document suggests these shock tactics were used widely in Latin America and other regions in the late 20th century.

Uploaded by

Kristina Belužić
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Disaster capitalism

orchestrated raids on
the public sphere in
the wake of
catastrophic events,
combined with the
treatment of disasters
as exciting market
opportunities
e.g. New Orleans
Charter schools, Sri
Lanka beaches

First Doctor
Shock
Ewen Cameron
psychiatrist who
worked for CIA on
mind control program
later called MKUltra
Donald Hebb
psychiatrist had a
theory for
interrogation methods
of communists

The Other Doctor Shock


Milton Friedman American economist,
taught at the
University of Chicago
Nobel prize in
economic sciences
ReputableMilton
Friedman Day, Fortune
Magazine, Freedom
Man

Economic shock
treatmant
"only a crisisactual or
perceivedproduces real
change. When that crisis
occurs, the actions that
are taken depend on the
ideas that are lying
around. That, I believe, is
our basic function: to
develop alternatives to
existing policies, to keep
them alive and available
until the politically
impossible becomes

The First Test


General Augusto Pinochet
Chile
Military coup, President
Allende killed
tax cuts, free trade,
privatized services, cuts
to social spending and
deregulation
torture treatmant for
those who resisted
Brazil and Indonesia
(regime change)

Latin American shock


economics

Uruguay military
coup
Argentina - junta
seized
power from Isabel
Pern
Poverment and
terror: isolation
chamber was called
the capucha (the

Tatcherism
Because strick economic
measures couldnt pass so
easy in democracy there
was a need for natural
shock such as war
Thatcher used Falklands
War to destroy the biggest
union of miners so that she
can carry out chicago
school ideology
Privatization: steel industry,
water, electricity, gas,
telephones, airlines, oil....

Bolivia
part of the democratic
wave sweeping the
developing world
Big debt
War zone and economic
meltdown
chicago school plan:
elimination of food
subsidies, the canceling of
almost all price controls
and a 300 percent hike in
the price of oil

Some more shock therapies

Poland - unity
Solidarity problems
shock therapy
China - prodemocracy
movement state of
emergency torture
and massacre
Russia
South Africa

USA
Rumsfeld defence
secretary
Bush privatization: water
and electricity to highway
management and garbage
collection
also: the military, police,
fire departments, prisons,
border control...
9/11 showed problems of
privatization
Bushs (completely) New
Deal
A Market for Terrorism

Erasing Iraq
Terrorist (The invasion of
Iraq was sold to the
public on the basis of
fear of weapons of mass
destruction)
War radical economic
shock therapy: mass
privatization, complete
free trade, a 15 percent
flat tax, a dramatically
downsized government
+ torture

Conclusion
Friedman = Cameron
By 2006, key players
from each camp were
either in jail or up on
charges

Memory, both
individual and
collective, turns out
to be the greatest
shock absorber of
all.

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