Blaž Kosovel on A History of Power, Influence and Contradictions

RTV Slovenija has published an extensive article marking the 250th anniversary of the United States, titled “250 Years of the United States: A History of Power, Influence and Contradictions.” One of the central contributors to the article is Blaž Kosovel, Policy Lab collaborator, PhD in Cultural Studies, co-editor of the journal Razpotja, and author of the book Why the United States Does Not Have a Ministry of Culture.

In the article, Kosovel reflects on the historical foundations of American society, arguing that many of the contradictions associated with the United States did not begin with the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776. Instead, they have much deeper roots in European colonial expansion, the plantation economy, slavery, private property relations and early capitalist forms of labour exploitation.

A central part of Kosovel’s contribution concerns the specific character of British colonisation in North America. Unlike Spanish, Portuguese or French colonial projects, British colonisation was to a significant degree organised through private initiative. As Kosovel explains:

“When Spain, Portugal and later France begin colonisation, the crown finances the expeditions. In the case of England, and even earlier the Netherlands, colonisation is undertaken through private initiative.”

This distinction is crucial for understanding the political and economic foundations of what later became the United States.

Kosovel also points out that the early British colonial economy was deeply tied to plantation production and the extraction of profit from land and labour. Before the North American colonies became highly profitable, British colonies in the Caribbean generated enormous wealth through sugar production. As he notes,

“the English colonisation begins with exporting drugs to Europe, with sugar and tobacco.”

This striking formulation places the origins of American capitalism within a wider Atlantic economy based on plantation agriculture, forced labour and the commodification of addictive substances.

The article also explores the history of slavery, indentured servitude and the emergence of racism. Kosovel emphasises that, in the early colonial period, exploitation was not yet organised solely through the later racial categories that came to define American slavery. Among the exploited were Africans, Irish people and many European indentured servants, who worked for years without pay in exchange for their passage across the Atlantic. These shared experiences of exploitation created conditions in which solidarity among different groups of oppressed people was possible.

Kosovel highlights Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676 in Virginia as a key historical turning point. The rebellion brought together poor white settlers, Black slaves, indentured servants and others exploited by the colonial order. According to Kosovel, Bacon managed to unite the frustrations of different subordinated groups: “Bacon is a small landowner who somehow succeeds in uniting the frustration of all the exploited in his rebellion.” For colonial elites, this was a dangerous signal: if those who were exploited could organise together, they could threaten the existing social and economic order.

This is where Kosovel locates one of the crucial origins of modern racism. In one of the article’s most important arguments, he states:

“The fundamental point here is that slavery is not a consequence of racism, but racism is a consequence of slavery.”

Racism, in this interpretation, was not simply an inherited prejudice, but an ideological operation: a way to justify slavery and divide exploited groups that might otherwise recognise their shared interests.

The article then moves to the American Revolution and the specific understanding of the state that developed in the United States. Kosovel stresses the difference between the American and French revolutions.

“While the French Revolution was about the people taking power and replacing the king, the American Revolution meant a break from the king, from tradition, from anything positively determining. But they preserved the economic system, free trade, or the economy.”

In this reading, the American state was designed less as a transformative social project than as a legal framework protecting private property, exchange and economic freedom.

This historical trajectory also helps explain why the United States long remained without a strong welfare state. Kosovel notes that until the 20th century, the federal state had neither a developed tax system nor a standing army in the modern sense. A broader state apparatus began to emerge only in the early 20th century, especially with the First World War and later Roosevelt’s New Deal. Yet, as Kosovel warns, the American welfare state has been contested from the very beginning and has remained “constantly under attack from one political pole and the owners of large corporations.”

Kosovel’s contribution shows that the history of the United States is not only a story of freedom, democracy, innovation and global influence. It is also a story of colonialism, plantation capitalism, slavery, racism, class conflict, limited social rights and the powerful ideology of American exceptionalism. As he illustrates through an anecdote from New York, this ideology remains remarkably resilient: even a man lying on the street in Brooklyn could still say that America is “the best country in the world.”

Understanding these contradictions remains crucial today, as the United States once again faces intensified conflicts over inequality, migration, policing, social rights, political polarisation and the role of the state. The article shows how deeply contemporary American crises are rooted in long historical processes — and why they cannot be understood only through current political events.

The article “250 Years of the United States: A History of Power, Influence and Contradictions” is available on RTV Slovenija.