Concepts Topic Files Philosophy
These notes are synthesized from my reading of Neoliberalism, A Very Short Introduction. This text is an overview of neoliberal principles, and their incarnations as an ideology, a mode of governance, and a policy framework, and also provides a history of neoliberalism from its roots and various incarnations around the globe.
These notes are taken from highlights extracted by Local parsing of KOReader Notes to Org Roam.
Three Modes of Neoliberalism
An Ideology: Neoliberalism views society as a natural market of rational individuals
Neoconservativism is "a muscular liberalism"
Neoliberalism as a Mode of Governance treats bureaucracy as "just another business"
Neoliberalism as a Policy Package follows the D-L-P formula
deregulation of the economy
liberalization of trade and industry
privatization of state-owned enterprises
Formation and History
Classic Liberalism
Keynesian Revolution
State "DONE" from "INPROGRESS"
State "INPROGRESS" from
Hayek, Mont Pelerin Society, the Chicago School of Economics
The Mont Pelerin Society was founded in 1947 by Friedrich August von Hayek to challenge the dominance of Keynesianism and to stem the "rising tide of collectivism". roam:Hayek believed that economic activity lay at the root of society, and that economic freedom was a "profoundly political and moral force" that shaped the rest of society. roam:Hayek further considered most forms of government regulation or interference to be a milestone on the "road to serfdom"
Hayek was a great influence on the economists at the University of Chicago school of Economics, the "Chicago School"'s Neoclassical Economics, and their leader Milton Friedman. By the 1970s America's economy had begun to experience currency inflation and increasing unemployment as the Keynesian economic systems failed to react quickly enough to shifting global markets, and as a wave of financial crises went over the world the theory of Monetarism was formulated. Monetarism is an economic policy which believes that monetary, that is currency, policies should take precendence over fiscal policies, taxes and redistribution policies.
Friedman and the Chicago School focused on inflation as the most dangerous outcome of state economic interference and that efforts should be taken to remove things like Keynesian pricing and currency controls. Inflation, Monetarists believe, could be controlled by regulating the base growing rate of the currency. Their writing was very influential in the chaotic period of the 70s.
First Wave Neoliberalism: Reagan and Thatcher bring austerity
Second Wave Neoliberalism: Clinton and the like
The 2000s and the mortgage-backed derivatives crisis
Exporting Neoliberalism by hook or by crook
After World War II the International Monteary Fund and World Bank were created to move money to countries for reconstruction efforts, and to manage the currency flows between them. After reconstruction, the IMF became a sort of global bank which countries could petition for loans, and the World Bank largely became a vector for "third-world" investment.
how does the IMF function? what are the effects and side-effects?
the IMF and World Bank and Structural Adjustment Programmes
Neoliberalism views society as a natural market of rational individuals
Linked from
Summary from Neoliberalism: A Very Short Introduction
Neoliberalism as an Ideology is rooted in […]
the idea that if the government just […], the market will provide a […].
Neoliberals believe that […], […] and […] allow a society to generate otherwise unimaginable wealth.[fn:1]
American Neoliberalism prizes […] and […] and believes that society is best conceptualized as […][fn:2]
Footnotes
[fn:1] I think this is mostly true, but the wealth is distributed in a very inequitable fashion without strong controls. Strong enough controls would violate a lot of neoliberal principles though, and this is why I guess I'm not a neoliberal. Those three enablers are Good Things to me, even if their outcome is not. Tough. open threads
[fn:2] american neoliberalism also suffers from a diseased belief that the state should behave as much as possible like a private entity, subject to the market, and I think that things which are of critical importance should be run more akin to how a university or research lab works, but those are all being market-ized and leveraged now too so what the fuck do I know? (see Neoliberalism as a Mode of Governance)
Neoliberalism as a Policy Package follows the D-L-P formula
Neoliberalism is a Concept with three modes: Neoliberalism as an Ideology, Neoliberalism as a Mode of Governance, and Neoliberalism as a Policy Package:
tax cuts, especially for high-income and businesses. Trickle Down Economics
reduction of social services and welfare Individual Responsibility roam:Workfare
use of interest rates by central banks to keep inflation in check, even if that increases unemployment
tax havens for domestic and foreign corporations in specific zones or industries
privatized public spaces shaped by "market imperatives"
anti-union in the name of increased efficiency, "labor flexibility" (yikes!!)
free global finance and trade
The "D-L-P" formula
[…] of the economy
[…] of trade and industry
[…] of state-owned enterprises
Neoliberalism as a Mode of Governance treats bureaucracy as "just another business"
From Neoliberalism: A Very Short Introduction, one of Neoliberalism's three modes of operation is as a mode of governance.
Neoliberals aim to make the bureaucracy "just another business" which consumers interact with in the same way they interact with, say, Comcast, and crucially in the operation of the operation as business subject to the acceptance of the market.
So far, the text hasn't really talked much about the implication of the bureaucracy's monopoly on things like force, but I'm kind of afraid of the answer. thinking about private security and mercenary armies, but I don't have much more to say right now.