Neoliberalism

Extracted Attributes

• Aims

  Increase role of private sector, counter volatility of free markets, avoid economic failures of early 1930s, optimal distribution of resources, maximize personal well-being

• Criticism

  Lack of transparency and democratic accountability, economy dictates rules to society

• Circulation

  Gained global circulation by 1994

• Originators

  European liberal scholars

• Response To

  Perceived decline of classical liberalism, social liberal desire to control markets, failure of post-war consensus and neo-Keynesian economics to address 1970s stagflation

• Ideology Type

  Political and economic ideology

• Origin Period

  1930s

• Primary Usage

  Describes societal transformations resulting from market-based reforms

• Core Principle

  Free-market capitalism

• Facilitated By

  Dissolution of the Soviet Union, end of the Cold War

• Origin Location

  Europe

• Common Connotation

  Often used pejoratively

• Associated Policies

  Privatization, deregulation, globalization, free trade, reductions in government spending, monetarism, austerity, labor market flexibilization, depoliticisation, consumer choice

• Scholarly Attention

  Significant in recent decades

• Impact on Wealth Distribution

  Remunerates capital to the detriment of labor, moves wealth from bottom to top

Timeline

• Neoliberalism originated among European liberal scholars as a response to the perceived decline of classical liberalism and the desire to control markets, seeking to counter the volatility of free markets and avoid economic failures. (Source: summary, Wikipedia, DBPedia)

  1930-XX-XX

• The failure of the post-war consensus and neo-Keynesian economics to address the stagflation of the 1970s facilitated the rise of neoliberalism. (Source: summary, Wikipedia, DBPedia)

  1970-XX-XX

• The term 'neoliberalism' entered common academic use, often associated with Augusto Pinochet's economic reforms in Chile, quickly acquiring negative connotations. (Source: Wikipedia, DBPedia)

  1980-XX-XX

• The term 'neoliberalism' entered global circulation, coinciding with events like the passage of NAFTA and the Zapatistas' reaction. (Source: summary, Wikipedia, DBPedia)

  1994-XX-XX

• Neoliberalism gained dominance in policy-making from the late 20th century onwards, facilitated by the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. (Source: summary, Wikipedia, DBPedia)

  1990-XX-XX

Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pejoratively. In scholarly use, the term is often left undefined or used to describe a multitude of phenomena. However, it is primarily employed to delineate the societal transformation resulting from market-based reforms. Neoliberalism originated among European liberal scholars during the 1930s. It emerged as a response to the perceived decline in popularity of classical liberalism, which was seen as giving way to a social liberal desire to control markets. This shift in thinking was shaped by the Great Depression and manifested in policies designed to counter the volatility of free markets. One motivation for the development of policies designed to mitigate the volatility of capitalist free markets was a desire to avoid repeating the economic failures of the early 1930s, which have been attributed, in part, to the economic policy of classical liberalism. In the context of policymaking, neoliberalism is often used to describe a paradigm shift that was said to follow the failure of the post-war consensus and neo-Keynesian economics to address the stagflation of the 1970s, though the 1973 oil crisis, a causal factor, was purely external, which no economic modality has shown to be able to handle. The dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War also facilitated the rise of neoliberalism in the United States, the United Kingdom and around the world. Neoliberalism has become an increasingly prevalent term in recent decades. It has been a significant factor in the proliferation of conservative and right-libertarian organizations, political parties, and think tanks, and predominantly advocated by them. Neoliberalism is often associated with a set of economic liberalization policies, including privatization, deregulation, depoliticisation, consumer choice, labor market flexibilization, economic globalization, free trade, monetarism, austerity, and reductions in government spending. These policies are designed to increase the role of the private sector in the economy and society. Additionally, the neoliberal project is oriented towards the establishment of institutions and is inherently political in nature, extending beyond mere economic considerations. The term is rarely used by proponents of free-market policies. When the term entered into common academic use during the 1980s in association with Augusto Pinochet's economic reforms in Chile, it quickly acquired negative connotations and was employed principally by critics of market reform and laissez-faire capitalism. Scholars tended to associate it with the theories of economists working with the Mont Pelerin Society, including Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises, and James M. Buchanan, along with politicians and policy-makers such as Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Alan Greenspan. Once the new meaning of neoliberalism became established as common usage among Spanish-speaking scholars, it diffused into the English-language study of political economy. By 1994, the term entered global circulation and scholarship about it has grown over the last few decades.

Web Search Results

• Neoliberalism - Wikipedia

  Neoliberalism is an economic philosophy that originated among European liberal scholars during the 1930s. It emerged as a response to the perceived decline in popularity of classical liberalism, which was seen as giving way to a social liberal desire to control markets. This shift in thinking was shaped by the Great Depression and manifested in policies designed to counter the volatility of free markets.( One motivation for the development of policies designed to mitigate the volatility of [...] Unrelated to the economic philosophy, _neoliberalism_ is used to describe a centrist political movement from modern American liberalism in the 1970s. According to political commentator David Brooks "David Brooks (commentator)"), prominent neoliberal politicians included Al Gore and Bill Clinton of the Democratic Party.( The neoliberals coalesced around two magazines, _The New Republic_ and the _Washington Monthly_;( they also supported Third Way policies. The "godfather" of this version of [...] Neoliberalism( is both a political philosophy and a term used to signify the late-20th-century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism.( The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pejoratively.( In scholarly use, the term is often left undefined or used to describe a multitude of phenomena;( however, it is primarily employed to delineate the societal transformation resulting from market-based reforms.(

• Is Neoliberalism Killing Us? A Cross Sectional Study of the Impact of ...

  According to Navarro (2007), neoliberalism is an ideology based on the theory that natural market forces of supply and demand create an optimal distribution of resources within society—thereby maximizing personal well-being of individuals and communities.1 Advocates of neoliberalism argue that government intervention disrupts these natural market forces—creating inefficiencies and reducing societal and economic benefits.2 Rising to prominence under the Reagan and Thatcher administrations in the [...] United States and United Kingdom, respectively, neoliberalism has crept into many aspects of political thought and everyday life.3,4 Widespread public support for the ideology led to sweeping policy reforms2 —especially as it became synonymous with popularly held individualistic, meritocratic, and naturalistic worldviews.5–8 Among these reforms were divestments from social welfare programs and the privatization of many health and social goods.9

• Neoliberalism - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

  One is on better ground arguing that neoliberalism is a twentieth century revival of classical liberal ideas in response to certain unique twentieth century challenges. Neoliberalism arose in the late 1940s as a response to three twentieth century ideologies that advocated large states: communism (as the most prominent form of socialism), fascism, and social democracy. Neoliberals sought to confine state power to a range of functions much more limited than [...] Brown (2019) agrees. Some say that neoliberalism is an ideology where everyone is supposed to focus on economic prosperity or economic growth. Others say that neoliberalism is an ethos of the firm that rejects corporate social responsibility, instead recommending that firms focus solely on their bottom lines (Steger & Roy 2010: 13). [...] If we want to understand neoliberalism in terms of the ideas of those commonly associated with it, and usages proposed by historians, we should understand neoliberalism as a doctrine about how politics and the economy should be organized. It is not a theory of justice or legitimacy. Rather, neoliberals appeal to a plurality of moral considerations to justify their preferred institutions. We should also avoid defining neoliberalism as fitting within any of the following

• Neoliberalism: the idea that swallowed the world | Economic policy

  In short, “neoliberalism” is not simply a name for pro-market policies, or for the compromises with finance capitalism made by failing social democratic parties. It is a name for a premise that, quietly, has come to regulate all we practise and believe: that competition is the only legitimate organising principle for human activity. [...] Neoliberalism is an old term, dating back to the 1930s, but it has been revived as a way of describing our current politics – or more precisely, the range of thought allowed by our politics. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, it was a way of assigning responsibility for the debacle, not to a political party per se, but to an establishment that had conceded its authority to the market. For the Democrats in the US and Labour in the UK, this concession was depicted as a grotesque [...] This last is what makes neoliberalism “neo”. It is a crucial modification of the older belief in a free market and a minimal state, known as “classical liberalism”. In classical liberalism, merchants simply asked the state to “leave us alone” – to laissez-nous faire. Neoliberalism recognised that the state must be active in the organisation of a market economy. The conditions allowing for a free market must be won politically, and the state must be re-engineered to support the free market on an

• A Short History of Neoliberalism | Transnational Institute

  So, from a small, unpopular sect with virtually no influence, neo-liberalism has become the major world religion with its dogmatic doctrine, its priesthood, its law-giving institutions and perhaps most important of all, its hell for heathen and sinners who dare to contest the revealed truth. Oskar Lafontaine, the ex-German Finance Minister who the Financial Times called an "unreconstructed Keynesian" has just been consigned to that hell because he dared to propose higher taxes on corporations [...] The common denominator of these institutions is their lack of transparency and democratic accountability. This is the essence of neo-liberalism. It claims that the economy should dictate its rules to society, not the other way around. Democracy is an encumbrance, neo-liberalism is designed for winners, not for voters who, necessarily encompass the categories of both winners and losers. [...] Another structural feature of neo-liberalism consists in remunerating capital to the detriment of labour and thus moving wealth from the bottom of society to the top. If you are, roughly, in the top 20 percent of the income scale, you are likely to gain something from neo-liberalism and the higher you are up the ladder, the more you gain. Conversely, the bottom 80 percent all lose and the lower they are to begin with, the more they lose proportionally.

• Instance Of

  Q1785609

Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent factor in the rise of conservative and libertarian organizations, political parties, and think tanks, and predominantly advocated by them, it is generally associated with policies of economic liberalization, including privatization, deregulation, globalization, free trade, monetarism, austerity, and reductions in government spending in order to increase the role of the private sector in the economy and society. The defining features of neoliberalism in both thought and practice have been the subject of substantial scholarly debate. As an economic philosophy, neoliberalism emerged among European liberal scholars in the 1930s as they attempted to revive and renew central ideas from classical liberalism as they saw these ideas diminish in popularity, overtaken by a desire to control markets, following the Great Depression and manifested in policies designed with the intention to counter the volatility of free markets. One impetus for the formulation of policies to mitigate free-market volatility was a desire to avoid repeating the economic failures of the early 1930s, failures sometimes attributed principally to the economic policy of classical liberalism. In policymaking, neoliberalism often refers to what was part of a paradigm shift that followed the alleged failure of the Keynesian consensus in economics to address the stagflation of the 1970s. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War also made possible the triumph of neoliberalism in the United States and around the world. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and a pejorative valence. English speakers have used the term since the start of the 20th century with different meanings, but it became more prevalent in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, used by scholars in a wide variety of social sciences as well as by critics to describe the transformation of society in recent decades due to market-based reforms. The term is rarely used by proponents of free-market policies. Some scholars reject the idea that neoliberalism is a monolithic ideology and have described the term as meaning different things to different people as neoliberalism has "mutated" into multiple, geopolitically distinct hybrids as it travelled around the world. Neoliberalism shares many attributes with other concepts that have contested meanings, including representative democracy. When the term entered into common use in the 1980s in connection with Augusto Pinochet's economic reforms in Chile, it quickly took on negative connotations and was employed principally by critics of market reform and laissez-faire capitalism. Scholars tended to associate it with the theories of Mont Pelerin Society economists Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises and James M. Buchanan, along with politicians and policy-makers such as Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Alan Greenspan. Once the new meaning of neoliberalism became established as a common usage among Spanish-speaking scholars, it diffused into the English-language study of political economy. By 1994, with the passage of NAFTA and with the Zapatistas' reaction to this development in Chiapas, the term entered global circulation. Scholarship on the phenomenon of neoliberalism has grown over the last few decades.