Unemployment is a major problem in South Africa that has the potential to erode the democratic future of this country. In general, the main economic approaches that deal with unemployment are informed by neo-liberal and neo-Marxist perspectives. The problem is that these perspectives are in a dialectical tension with each other and can increase conflict and unemployment. This dialectical tension is reflected in language that can be informed by the reductionist aspects of the ontologies perspectives. The purpose of this study is to inquire whether the deconstruction of Jacques Derrida can provide an alternative perspective for the dialectical tension present between neo-liberal and neo-Marxist approaches that are being used to address the problem of unemployment in the South African context. In this regard, the critique of the language of reductionist ontologies by deconstruction provides a means to move beyond the tension between neo-liberalism and neo-Marxism, because deconstruction uncovers the ambivalence of the language of both perspectives, but without constructing a new synthesis that may result in new reductions of reality. This reduction of reality is evident in the use of “growth momentum”, referred to by Rodrik (2008:3), as a suggestion of a neo-liberal solution to the problem of unemployment. Growth is a reference to natural processes that can become a means to hide the mechanical structure of the economic cycle, which again has the potential to restrict growth through extreme forms of inequality and greed. Neo-Marxist perspectives utilise references to “equality” and “government intervention” to deal with injustice. This can result in extreme forms of control that diminish human dignity. The role of deconstruction for the language of economic theory is illustrated by Jacques Derrida’s use of the word “Gift”. A gift is ambivalent because it contains a tension between self-interest and justice, which Jacques Derrida refers to as “hospitable narcissism”. It will be argued that this ambivalence is present in the language of the economic theory of John Maynard Keynes, which may provide important sustainable economic perspectives for dealing with unemployment in South Africa, thus providing a practical application of hospitable narcissism. In this regard, deconstruction is helpful to develop sensitivity to the language used and the ontologies that inform the language when addressing unemployment. The gift advances human dignity through responsible governance that is critical of 5 uncontrolled self-interest, greed and corruption. This happens through engagement with unemployed people – an act of accountability. In this regard, the study aims at researching the following goals: Firstly, it aims to argue that unemployment in general is perpetuated by the dialectical tension between neo-liberalism and neo-Marxism; secondly, the deconstruction of language provides a critical perspective on reality that opens new perspectives for discussing the possibility of sustainable economic language, with reference to the word “gift”; thirdly, an aspect of “the gift” is present in the economic theory of Keynes that may provide sustainable perspectives for unemployment in the South African context. In order to reach these goals, a praxis methodology is followed in which the practical reality of unemployment and the dialectical tension between neo-liberalism and neo-Marxism in South Africa are the points of departure. The implication is that the economic reality of unemployment and the political tension between neo-liberalism and neo-Marxism form the basis for further philosophical reflection. To do this, a deconstructive approach is followed as a means to explore the ontology of neo-liberalism and neo-Marxism. This is followed by a deconstructive reading of the economic theory that John Maynard Keynes follows in order to provide alternative perspectives for the problem of unemployment in South Africa. The following resources were consulted in the research: Library catalogue of the North-West University, research articles through the database of Ebsco-host, statistics of unemployment from Statistics South Africa, and newspaper articles. This mini-dissertation is presented in the form of an article, in accordance with rule A.7.2.5 of the “General Academic Rules” of the North-West University. The article will be presented for publication in the journal Acta Academica, at a later stage. In this regard, the guidelines for publication of this journal are included in the appendix. The article contains the following subdivisions: 1. Introduction 2. Neo-liberalism and neo-Marxism: Contemporary research of unemployment in South Africa 3. Deconstruction and “the gift” 4. John Maynard Keynes and unemployment 5. “The gift” and unemployment in the South African context 6. Conclusion In the next section, the research article is presented with a bibliography and a summary of the article in English and Afrikaans, in accordance with the prescriptions of Acta Academica. In the final sections of the document some general conclusions, the limitations of the study and recommendations for further research, are presented. This is followed by the appendix with prescriptions for research articles submitted to Acta Academica. / Thesis (MPhil)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Unemployment is a major problem in South Africa that has the potential to erode the democratic future of this country. In general, the main economic approaches that deal with unemployment are informed by neo-liberal and neo-Marxist perspectives. The problem is that these perspectives are in a dialectical tension with each other and can increase conflict and unemployment. This dialectical tension is reflected in language that can be informed by the reductionist aspects of the ontologies perspectives. The purpose of this study is to inquire whether the deconstruction of Jacques Derrida can provide an alternative perspective for the dialectical tension present between neo-liberal and neo-Marxist approaches that are being used to address the problem of unemployment in the South African context. In this regard, the critique of the language of reductionist ontologies by deconstruction provides a means to move beyond the tension between neo-liberalism and neo-Marxism, because deconstruction uncovers the ambivalence of the language of both perspectives, but without constructing a new synthesis that may result in new reductions of reality. This reduction of reality is evident in the use of “growth momentum”, referred to by Rodrik (2008:3), as a suggestion of a neo-liberal solution to the problem of unemployment. Growth is a reference to natural processes that can become a means to hide the mechanical structure of the economic cycle, which again has the potential to restrict growth through extreme forms of inequality and greed. Neo-Marxist perspectives utilise references to “equality” and “government intervention” to deal with injustice. This can result in extreme forms of control that diminish human dignity. The role of deconstruction for the language of economic theory is illustrated by Jacques Derrida’s use of the word “Gift”. A gift is ambivalent because it contains a tension between self-interest and justice, which Jacques Derrida refers to as “hospitable narcissism”. It will be argued that this ambivalence is present in the language of the economic theory of John Maynard Keynes, which may provide important sustainable economic perspectives for dealing with unemployment in South Africa, thus providing a practical application of hospitable narcissism. In this regard, deconstruction is helpful to develop sensitivity to the language used and the ontologies that inform the language when addressing unemployment. The gift advances human dignity through responsible governance that is critical of 5 uncontrolled self-interest, greed and corruption. This happens through engagement with unemployed people – an act of accountability. In this regard, the study aims at researching the following goals: Firstly, it aims to argue that unemployment in general is perpetuated by the dialectical tension between neo-liberalism and neo-Marxism; secondly, the deconstruction of language provides a critical perspective on reality that opens new perspectives for discussing the possibility of sustainable economic language, with reference to the word “gift”; thirdly, an aspect of “the gift” is present in the economic theory of Keynes that may provide sustainable perspectives for unemployment in the South African context. In order to reach these goals, a praxis methodology is followed in which the practical reality of unemployment and the dialectical tension between neo-liberalism and neo-Marxism in South Africa are the points of departure. The implication is that the economic reality of unemployment and the political tension between neo-liberalism and neo-Marxism form the basis for further philosophical reflection. To do this, a deconstructive approach is followed as a means to explore the ontology of neo-liberalism and neo-Marxism. This is followed by a deconstructive reading of the economic theory that John Maynard Keynes follows in order to provide alternative perspectives for the problem of unemployment in South Africa. The following resources were consulted in the research: Library catalogue of the North-West University, research articles through the database of Ebsco-host, statistics of unemployment from Statistics South Africa, and newspaper articles. This mini-dissertation is presented in the form of an article, in accordance with rule A.7.2.5 of the “General Academic Rules” of the North-West University. The article will be presented for publication in the journal Acta Academica, at a later stage. In this regard, the guidelines for publication of this journal are included in the appendix. The article contains the following subdivisions: 1. Introduction 2. Neo-liberalism and neo-Marxism: Contemporary research of unemployment in South Africa 3. Deconstruction and “the gift” 4. John Maynard Keynes and unemployment 5. “The gift” and unemployment in the South African context 6. Conclusion In the next section, the research article is presented with a bibliography and a summary of the article in English and Afrikaans, in accordance with the prescriptions of Acta Academica. In the final sections of the document some general conclusions, the limitations of the study and recommendations for further research, are presented. This is followed by the appendix with prescriptions for research articles submitted to Acta Academica. / Thesis (MPhil)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

This study focuses on the way in which Willem Boshoff aesthetically con-cretized the historical memories of Afrikaners and their influence on their notion of power and identity formation. For this purpose a selection was made of Boshoff’s language-based conceptual installations. During the colonial and apartheid eras South Africa had a long history, which was characterized by people in power who encountered other population groups from a vantage point of superiority implying subjection. This implied that the particular in-terests of the people in power were generalized across the whole of society and imposed on all population groups as generalized interests. Where the in-dividual interests did not correspond to the general interests of society in its totality, the interests of the individual were negated and ignored. It can there-fore be stated that the utopia of those in power became the proverbial hell of the other. The study emanates from Ricoeur’s plea for a critical and imaginative en-counter with history so that other perspectives on traumatic events can be developed. Such an approach creates the possibility of opening up the unreal-ized promises of the past for the present and leading to the future. It further proceeds from the assumption that if we are faithful to the past, we will also be faithful to “the more” of the past or that which transcends the past. My ap-proach is in line with that of Verbeeck, who – tying in with Ricoeur – ad-vocated an anachronistic encounter with and interpretation of history. What is meant by aesthetic concretization in this study is that Willem Boshoff conceptually expresses his artistic interpretation and visual manifestation of philosophical ideas on Afrikaners’ memories of power and identity. He makes real (real-ises) and gives shape to these philosophical ideas. For this purpose three dates in the historical narratives of Afrikaners were selected, which had an important impact on Afrikaners’ notions of power and identity formation: 31 May 1902 –The end of the Anglo-Boer War and the demise of the Boer Republics and the freedom of Afrikaners; 31 May 1961 – The formation of the Republic of South Africa under the leadership of the National Party, and 27 April 1994 – The first democratic elections in South Africa, and the Afrikaners’ total loss of power. The reading and interpretation of Boshoff’s installations were undertaken with-in the framework of Adorno’s dialectical distinction in his aesthetic theory be-tween the Inhalt and the Gehalt of works of art. Adorno regards everything that appears in the work of art, viz. everything that the artist gives form to, as Inhalt [content]. Gehalt, on the other hand, refers to the truth content of works of art, which according to him resides in the specific negation [German: bestimmte Negation] of the untruth of an inhuman society. For Adorno bestimmte Negation signifies a break both with that which exists [in other words a negation of the predominance of a false reality] and with the continuity between the present and the future [the salvation of the moment or element which holds promise of something, which goes beyond that which exists, and refers to something better]. In Adorno’s view works of art are tho-roughly historically determined. According to Adorno the history of society is sedimented in the material, the constellations and the form elements of works of art. What is meant by this is that the artistic material which an artist [in this study Boshoff] utilizes, is not only words, pigments, or rock, but is everything that is pre-formed by history that the artist uses. Because history sediments in the material and because the material of a work of art is taken from reality, but in a fragmented fashion, the work of art becomes a monad – that is auto-nomous and windowless, because the work of art, apparantly, has no links to or relationships with recognizable reality or with other works of art. I argue that the exposé of the memories of Afrikaners of cultural and political domination, with historical narratives as a source, and the influence of these on their visions of power and identity, offers a framework for the reading and interpretation of selected installations. In these selected installations, Boshoff offers immanent criticism of the above unequal power relations and con-comitant views of identity. Through striving for the harmonious and the good as ethical and aesthetic principles in his installations focused on social inter-action, he makes a contribution to the creation of a more humanitarian society. / Thesis (PhD (Art History))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

This study focuses on the way in which Willem Boshoff aesthetically con-cretized the historical memories of Afrikaners and their influence on their notion of power and identity formation. For this purpose a selection was made of Boshoff’s language-based conceptual installations. During the colonial and apartheid eras South Africa had a long history, which was characterized by people in power who encountered other population groups from a vantage point of superiority implying subjection. This implied that the particular in-terests of the people in power were generalized across the whole of society and imposed on all population groups as generalized interests. Where the in-dividual interests did not correspond to the general interests of society in its totality, the interests of the individual were negated and ignored. It can there-fore be stated that the utopia of those in power became the proverbial hell of the other. The study emanates from Ricoeur’s plea for a critical and imaginative en-counter with history so that other perspectives on traumatic events can be developed. Such an approach creates the possibility of opening up the unreal-ized promises of the past for the present and leading to the future. It further proceeds from the assumption that if we are faithful to the past, we will also be faithful to “the more” of the past or that which transcends the past. My ap-proach is in line with that of Verbeeck, who – tying in with Ricoeur – ad-vocated an anachronistic encounter with and interpretation of history. What is meant by aesthetic concretization in this study is that Willem Boshoff conceptually expresses his artistic interpretation and visual manifestation of philosophical ideas on Afrikaners’ memories of power and identity. He makes real (real-ises) and gives shape to these philosophical ideas. For this purpose three dates in the historical narratives of Afrikaners were selected, which had an important impact on Afrikaners’ notions of power and identity formation: 31 May 1902 –The end of the Anglo-Boer War and the demise of the Boer Republics and the freedom of Afrikaners; 31 May 1961 – The formation of the Republic of South Africa under the leadership of the National Party, and 27 April 1994 – The first democratic elections in South Africa, and the Afrikaners’ total loss of power. The reading and interpretation of Boshoff’s installations were undertaken with-in the framework of Adorno’s dialectical distinction in his aesthetic theory be-tween the Inhalt and the Gehalt of works of art. Adorno regards everything that appears in the work of art, viz. everything that the artist gives form to, as Inhalt [content]. Gehalt, on the other hand, refers to the truth content of works of art, which according to him resides in the specific negation [German: bestimmte Negation] of the untruth of an inhuman society. For Adorno bestimmte Negation signifies a break both with that which exists [in other words a negation of the predominance of a false reality] and with the continuity between the present and the future [the salvation of the moment or element which holds promise of something, which goes beyond that which exists, and refers to something better]. In Adorno’s view works of art are tho-roughly historically determined. According to Adorno the history of society is sedimented in the material, the constellations and the form elements of works of art. What is meant by this is that the artistic material which an artist [in this study Boshoff] utilizes, is not only words, pigments, or rock, but is everything that is pre-formed by history that the artist uses. Because history sediments in the material and because the material of a work of art is taken from reality, but in a fragmented fashion, the work of art becomes a monad – that is auto-nomous and windowless, because the work of art, apparantly, has no links to or relationships with recognizable reality or with other works of art. I argue that the exposé of the memories of Afrikaners of cultural and political domination, with historical narratives as a source, and the influence of these on their visions of power and identity, offers a framework for the reading and interpretation of selected installations. In these selected installations, Boshoff offers immanent criticism of the above unequal power relations and con-comitant views of identity. Through striving for the harmonious and the good as ethical and aesthetic principles in his installations focused on social inter-action, he makes a contribution to the creation of a more humanitarian society. / Thesis (PhD (Art History))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

What do art workers, nuns and care workers have in common? How can these commonalities be conceptualised from the perspective of feminist Marxism? How would such conceptualisation open up intersectional and transversal perspectives for social movements struggling against precariousness? Departing from an auto-ethnographic account on activist experiences originating from the art workers’ movement in Tallinn, this thesis aims to theorise the intersection of precarious labour and gender. By using the thinking technology of diffractive reading, it places the debates around unwaged labour within art and care sector into the context of autonomist Marxist thinking. Furthermore, affinities and entanglements between feminist politics and the struggles of precarious workers are configured and imagined, in order to interlink and converge spatially and temporally isolated resistive practices that are constructed from the experience of unwaged and precarious workers.

This dissertation provides an analytical framework for understanding the left-indigenous cycle of extra-parliamentary insurrection in Bolivia between 2000 and 2005. It draws from Marxist and indigenous-liberationist theory to challenge the central presuppositions of liberal-institutionalist understandings of contemporary indigenous politics in Latin America, as well as the core tenets of mainstream social movement studies. The central argument is that a specific combination of elaborate infrastructures of class struggle and social-movement unionism, historical traditions of indigenous and working-class radicalism, combined oppositional consciousness, and fierce but insufficient state repression, explain the depth, breadth, and radical character of recent left-indigenous mobilizations in Bolivia. The coalition of insurrectionary social forces in the Gas Wars of 2003 and 2005 was led by indigenous informal workers, acting in concert with formal workers, peasants, and to a smaller degree, middle-class actors. The indigenous informal working classes of the city of El Alto, in particular, utilized an elaborate infrastructure of class struggle in order to overcome structural barriers to collective action and to take up their leading role. The supportive part played by the formal working class was made possible by the political orientation toward social-movement unionism adopted by leading trade-union federations. Radicalized peasants mobilized within the broader alliance through their own rural infrastructure of class struggle. The whole array of worker and peasant social forces drew on longstanding popular cultures of indigenous liberation and revolutionary Marxism which they adapted to the novel context of the twenty-first century. These popular cultures ultimately congealed in a new combined oppositional consciousness, rooted simultaneously in the politics of indigenous resistance and class struggle. This collective consciousness, in turn, strengthened the mobilizing capacities of the popular classes and reinforced the radical character of protest. At key junctures, social movement leaders were able to synthesize oppositional consciousness into a focused collective action frame of nationalizing the natural gas industry. Finally, throughout the left-indigenous cycle, ruthless state repression was nonetheless insufficiently powerful to wipe out opposition altogether and therefore acted only to intensify the scale of protests and radicalize demands still further. The legitimacy of the neoliberal social order and the coercive power required to reproduce it were increasingly called into question as violence against civilians increased.

<p>How did Georges Sorel's philosophy of violence emerge from the moderate, reformist, and liberal philosophy of the French Third Republic? This dissertation answers the question through a contextual intellectual history of Sorel's writings from the 1880s until 1908. Drawing on a variety of archives and printed sources, this dissertation situates Sorel in terms of the intellectual field of the early Third Republic. I locate the roots of Sorel's problematic at once in a broadly European late 19th century philosophy of science and in the liberal values and the political culture of the French 1870s. Sorel's engagement with Karl Marx, but also Émile Durkheim, Giambattista Vico, and other social theorists, is traced in order to explain why, despite his Marxism, Sorel confronted the twin fin-de-siècle crises of the Dreyfus Affair and Revisionism as a political liberal. I show how his syndicalism became radical, scissionistic, and anti-Statist in the post-Dreyfus context of anticlericalism leading up to the separation of Church and State in 1905. Sorel drew on figures such as Alexis de Tocqueville and Benedetto Croce to elaborate his Reflections on Violence in 1906-1908, finally transforming his political theory of institutions into an ethics of myth and individual engagement. </p><p>Sorel has been best known as an icon of radicalism as such--in shorthand, an inspiration for both Lenin and Mussolini. This political polarization has occluded Sorel's profound engagement with the foundational thinkers of the Third Republic. Against the backdrop of a systematic misunderstanding of the philosophical issues at stake, Sorel's political ideas and interventions have also been misunderstood. Not only his insights about the limits and potentials of the intellectual framework of the French Third Republic, but also their most significant contemporary resonances, have been lost. I show how and why this has been so by studying the reception of Sorel's work in the Anglophone world from the immediate postwar years until the early 1970s. Finally, I investigate resonances between Sorel's work as I have reconstructed it, and some currents in contemporary post-Marxist political thought. </p><p>Sorel is a revelatory figure in the entangled history of late 19th century liberalism and republicanism. He was profoundly engaged in the intellectual life of the French Third Republic and this, as much as his Marxism although less overtly, has shaped the meaning of his work. To return him to this context gives us a new understanding of the stakes of the philosophy of the period and the limits of its liberalism.</p> / Dissertation

The disability movement drew attention to the struggle against the oppression of people of disability. The rise of disability activism contributed to increased awareness of the need for a social theory of disability, in order to account for the historical, social and economic basis of oppression. Emerging studies of disability issues by disability theorists, such as Sobsey (1994), highlighted the higher prevalence and nature of violence against people with a disability, in comparison to the general population. However, the limited research concerning women with a physical impairment experiencing domestic violence contributes to this social problem being underestimated in the community. Contemporary theoretical conceptualisations of both domestic violence and disability fail to explain the causal framework that leads to women who have a disability experiencing violent situations. Similarly, by explaining domestic violence as a solely socially constructed gender inequality and power differential, feminism provides insufficient recognition of the structural dimension of disability. As a preliminary inquiry, this study draws on the premises of historical materialism, and feminism to explain disability and investigates disabilism as a means to examine the experience of domestic violence by women with a physical impairment. The research design incorporated the use of qualitative methods for data collection and encapsulated critical social science and interpretivist epistemology. This study provided the basis for generating an understanding of the nature of domestic violence against women with a physical impairment within this sample group. From this investigation, causal hypotheses can be advanced for subsequent extended research. This study revealed that disabilism together with the interacting structural dimensions of disability, gender and class operated to marginalise and alienate these women with a physical impairment in a violent relationship. This tended to reinforce and entrench violence against women with a physical impairment. The study provides insight into the way social conditions and disabilism interrelate to maintain this group of women with an impairment in a violent relationship and contribute to the experience of poverty and lower social status upon leaving the relationship.

The purpose of this PhD thesis is to make a contribution to existing knowledge in the field of critical accounting by studying credit mechanisms and their link to income/wealth inequality in Sri Lankan society and the role of accounting technology in facilitating such mechanisms. The literature review revealed that: a) Global inequality is aggravated by the disparity of economic development which is possible only through state intervention; b) Unemployment is considered as a dilemma for economic development in developing countries by most politicians/administrators/researchers; c) In any country, around 60-70 percent of employment is generated by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and; d) Their major problem is access to credit. This research was designed to find out how the credit system works and why certain SMEs do not have adequate access to credit to develop their businesses; to provide employment; to increase the share of national income to the lower income groups; to narrow down the gap between the rich and poor within and between countries. A case study research approach was followed to extract data on real-life experiences of the research participants. Reliability of data was ensured by using various verification techniques and maximum efforts were made to balance the two extremes of validity of the research; internal and external. The extent of representation by the cases and the bank was tested, and judged as high, with 12-14 characteristics common to the Sri Lankan credit culture and banking industry respectively. Marxian critical theories were used for theoretical guidance throughout the research. The three case studies provide empirical evidence for the existence of the discriminatory nature of credit decision-making where two credit applicants were successful but a third credit applicant failed in obtaining credit. It is contended that the two successful applicants were powerful enough to approach a more powerful bank Chairperson and to obtain credit outside the normal credit rules with the support of accounting technology and using masks such as patriotism and social responsibility. The other applicant, who was initially accommodated with credit at the lower level, could not convince the credit decision-makers at the higher level with expensive professionally prepared accounting reports. This applicant was not from an influential social network and could not reach the powerful credit decision-makers informally was rejected through strict application of credit rules. Deep analysis of these facts supports the Marxian claim that credit and exploitation mechanisms work towards concentration of wealth and sustaining income inequality. Credit decisions supply money to influential individuals and it is argued that such economic power enhances the social powerbase of those individuals, which in turn reinforces the propensity to make preferential credit decisions, thereby making them richer. In contrast, a lack of money translates into powerlessness, deprivation and exclusion from social activities for the majority of the poor. In this process opportunities are lost to disadvantaged social groups and this necessarily results in poor people’s economic status remaining stagnant. These power-driven, discriminatory decision-making systems not only restrict the availability of financial capital for feasible projects, but also deny credit to potential enterprises. Further, wasting resources on unfeasible projects, while ignoring the need for nurturing potentially viable projects, are a double blow to efforts towards employment generation and economic development and therefore, are detrimental to the economic well-being of the general population. These findings provide insight for policy formulators for more productive financial capital mobility systems in Sri Lanka. It is suggested that suitable State intervention in regulating SME financing could remove such credit-related obstacles to economic development, and work towards a fair distribution of economic benefits to the people in Sri Lanka and beyond.

The purpose of this PhD thesis is to make a contribution to existing knowledge in the field of critical accounting by studying credit mechanisms and their link to income/wealth inequality in Sri Lankan society and the role of accounting technology in facilitating such mechanisms. The literature review revealed that: a) Global inequality is aggravated by the disparity of economic development which is possible only through state intervention; b) Unemployment is considered as a dilemma for economic development in developing countries by most politicians/administrators/researchers; c) In any country, around 60-70 percent of employment is generated by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and; d) Their major problem is access to credit. This research was designed to find out how the credit system works and why certain SMEs do not have adequate access to credit to develop their businesses; to provide employment; to increase the share of national income to the lower income groups; to narrow down the gap between the rich and poor within and between countries. A case study research approach was followed to extract data on real-life experiences of the research participants. Reliability of data was ensured by using various verification techniques and maximum efforts were made to balance the two extremes of validity of the research; internal and external. The extent of representation by the cases and the bank was tested, and judged as high, with 12-14 characteristics common to the Sri Lankan credit culture and banking industry respectively. Marxian critical theories were used for theoretical guidance throughout the research. The three case studies provide empirical evidence for the existence of the discriminatory nature of credit decision-making where two credit applicants were successful but a third credit applicant failed in obtaining credit. It is contended that the two successful applicants were powerful enough to approach a more powerful bank Chairperson and to obtain credit outside the normal credit rules with the support of accounting technology and using masks such as patriotism and social responsibility. The other applicant, who was initially accommodated with credit at the lower level, could not convince the credit decision-makers at the higher level with expensive professionally prepared accounting reports. This applicant was not from an influential social network and could not reach the powerful credit decision-makers informally was rejected through strict application of credit rules. Deep analysis of these facts supports the Marxian claim that credit and exploitation mechanisms work towards concentration of wealth and sustaining income inequality. Credit decisions supply money to influential individuals and it is argued that such economic power enhances the social powerbase of those individuals, which in turn reinforces the propensity to make preferential credit decisions, thereby making them richer. In contrast, a lack of money translates into powerlessness, deprivation and exclusion from social activities for the majority of the poor. In this process opportunities are lost to disadvantaged social groups and this necessarily results in poor people’s economic status remaining stagnant. These power-driven, discriminatory decision-making systems not only restrict the availability of financial capital for feasible projects, but also deny credit to potential enterprises. Further, wasting resources on unfeasible projects, while ignoring the need for nurturing potentially viable projects, are a double blow to efforts towards employment generation and economic development and therefore, are detrimental to the economic well-being of the general population. These findings provide insight for policy formulators for more productive financial capital mobility systems in Sri Lanka. It is suggested that suitable State intervention in regulating SME financing could remove such credit-related obstacles to economic development, and work towards a fair distribution of economic benefits to the people in Sri Lanka and beyond.