Bethany Moreton

La doctrina y la práctica religiosas han sido uno de los principales difusores de las ideas, subjetividades y políticas neoliberales. Los historiadores e intelectuales han recuperado las escuelas neoliberales de Ginebra y Friburgo, Virginia y Chicago, Viena y Colonia; pero, en este libro, Bethany Moreton aboga por añadir a esa extensa lista de grupos creadores de opinión y estrategias la mundialmente conocida como «Escuela de Navarra», igualmente heterogénea pero asimismo identificable con las redes neoliberales actuales. El neologismo deriva de su universidad insignia en España, la Universidad de Navarra, desde donde los miembros del Opus Dei han difundido política económica, formación empresarial y práctica religiosa. En este trabajo, una de las historiadoras del neoliberalismo más importantes del momento analiza con rigurosidad la importancia y trascendencia histórica de esta institución a lo largo y ancho del mundo, y el peso de su ideología como punta de lanza del neoliberalismo venidero.… (mehr)

The formation and growth of Wal-Mart in the heart of a state like Arkansas represents a paradox of populism and corporatism. In actuality, Wal-Mart capitalized on southerners’ traditional fear of outside corporate chains and foreign entrepreneurs by billing themselves as in line with the wholesome local country store, not the corporate chain. The origins of the chain depended on a correction of the corporatism criticized by populists in the area, as well as taking advantage of government funding for new corporate ventures. In fact, Wal-Mart positions its origins in the communal response of local businesses banding together to combat larger chains and discount stores. Its expansion began primarily in what came to be known as Wal-Mart country—the area of northern Arkansas and southern Missouri that saw the stores take hold in smaller towns with federal money coming in. Sam Walton’s small-town mentality towards hiring and presentation, as well as his entrepreneurship and gift of expansion, allowed him to fill the region with larger chains that had a distinctly non-chain feeling.

The hierarchy of the stores was modeled after traditional rural familial structures in the area, as opposed to the military organization used by other corporate chains. In order to combat the stereotype of the feminized store clerk, Wal-Marts hired males (treated as adults even if young) in supervisor roles, and woman in subordinate positions. This family structure also bred an atypical level of interdependence, as well as a new work ideology of service that permeated Wal-Mart culture. This reorganization resulted not only in better customer relationships, but better relationships between managers and coworkers as well. All of these major changes in the chain structure made by Walton allowed the emerging Christian Right to attach moral Christian family values to the structure of Wal-Mart—its clean aisles and service ethos were able to recreate a sanitized version of small town life within the store itself. Interestingly, Wal-Mart was never openly aligned with the Christian Right, but served as a model of conservative Christian business practices and morality by recognizing their primary customers shifting needs and desires.

Wal-Mart became heavily aligned with revaluing women’s position in the home, subtly reinforcing the Christian service notion of women as selfless shoppers, as well as the male dominated workspace. Adjusting to the feminization of the workspace, maculating the “servant leader” ideal allowed a successful corporate culture to be established by Wal-Mart, while not necessarily giving the kind of benefits one would expect from a large successful company. Also, by recognizing the desires of its employees and customers and intertwining them with traditional management tactics, Wal-Mart successfully created an environment of growth in which they were able to go out into the surrounding Christian colleges to find new conservative business leaders to manage and represent their new stores. These changes in managerial structure occurred with technological innovations both in evangelical culture and Wal-Mart culture.

To the detriment of the liberal arts, the 1970s also saw a reactionary conservative emphasis on business and economics in secondary schools and colleges (especially Christian schools) to combat the antibusiness sentiments of the previous decade. Universities and colleges that did not refocus towards a more business minded curriculum faced funding problems, while schools that did shift their focus saw increased federal spending. Organizations like Students in Free Enterprise (sponsored by Wal-Mart) began to focus on encouraging students in new evangelical colleges to pursue careers in conservative business by creating competitions and fellowships. Its connections with private evangelical institutions served to reinforce a Christian conservatism in the upcoming generation of Sun Belt businessmen—the future leaders of Wal-Marts. These students became evangelists of free enterprise in a time of deficit and began fighting rampant government spending, sending SIFE into the public sphere of electoral politics. Wal-Mart executives, including Jack Shewmaker, began politicking through SIFE in order to encourage economic education and a restructuring of congressional and business practices.

With the fall of the USSR, Wal-Mart began internationalizing and leading the way towards economic globalization and a redistribution of worldwide labor. The company brought technology, American business practices, evangelical Christianity, and rural family values to places all across the globe—their free-trade ethos was now what many countries knew of the United States. Initially, Wal-Mart was primarily interested in overseas production, but eventually found that it could expand its retail market all over the world, thereby bringing this gospel of free trade with them. Wal-Mart formed a complicated relationship with world trade organizations, and after the formation of NAFTA, began buying up retailers around the globe to expand its vision of American identity, Christian values, and corporate globalism into the twenty-first century.… (mehr)

This book traces Wal-mart's development from a local store in the Ozarks to the largest corporation in the world. Moreton argues that it does this through adaptable business strategies that incorporated ideas of Christian service, family structure and free enterprise. She starts by showing how Sam Walton turned the disadvantages of being in Arkansas into advantages. He initially kept ownership to his family, then store managers and then the local areas so to contrast the national chains. He also tapped into the social structure of the area that put men in management and women as store workers. He developed a family structure for each store to develop employee loyalty and morale.

She shows that Wal-mart promoted Christian-style service and then brought in Christian business. This was not because of Walton's religious feeling, which appears to have been lukewarm, but because it made good business sense. Christian merchandise and events made a lot of money, so Wal-mart promoted them.

The book moves onto Wal-mart going national and exerting some influence on culture. It linked with Students in Free Enterprise to indoctrinate students in the value of capitalism and then recruit them into it management system. It helped fund evangelical schools in the Ozarks to promote free enterprise. It funded scholarships for Central Americans to study at those schools and then return how as apostles of the American system (free-enterprise and Christianity).

The section on international scholarships is when Wal-mart started to go global. But its big step was opening a store in Mexico, which Moreton says nearly single-handedly got NAFTA passed by showing how Mexicans wanted to buy American goods. Then she shows how Wal-mart led the way in creating a global supply chain and in opening outlets abroad.

This book is superbly researched, but has very little to link it together except that Wal-mart is in every chapter. It is basically a corporate history, which is useful to people interested in business, but each chapter is only loosely connected to the others so it seems disjointed. It is provides some interesting insight into the Ozarks, but beyond that, it isn't much use. I found her analysis of gender issues in the company to be inconsistent and unconvincing. There were definitely problems of gender there, but she doesn't show much on Wal-mart being different in wanting male executives. The section on NAFTA was interesting, but I will want to find some other analyses of ratification before I'll give too much weight to Moreton's findings.

Overall, I'd say skip it.… (mehr)