Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is a policy paradigm that emphasizes the need for free market competition. It is both an ideology (that is, an organized set of ideas) and a practice (that is, a set of policy prescriptions). Although there is considerable debate as to the defining features of neoliberal thought and practice, it is most commonly associated with laissez-faire economics. In particular, neoliberalism is often characterized in terms of its belief in sustained economic growth as the means to achieve human progress, its confidence in free markets as the most efficient allocation of resources, its emphasis on minimal state intervention in economic and social affairs, and its commitment to the freedom of trade and capital.

Despite their similar titles, neoliberalism is distinct from new liberalism. Both have their ideological roots in the classical liberalism of the nineteenth century, which championed the freedom (or liberty) of the individual. But liberalism has evolved over time into a number of different (and often competing) traditions. New liberalism has evolved from the social liberal tradition, which focuses on individuals' freedom to achieve fulfillment through state intervention (such as the right to free education and health care). By contrast, neoliberalism is closely related to economic liberalism, which emphasizes individuals' freedom from state intervention (for example, in terms of the right to own private property and to enter into contracts). This variant of liberalism is often associated with the economist Adam Smith, who argued in his 1776 book, The Wealth of Nations, that markets are governed by an “invisible hand” and thus should be subject to minimal government interference.

Classical liberalism was highly influential in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in which the industrialized economies pursued trade liberalization and laissez-faire economics. However, with the advent of the Great Depression in the 1930s and then World War II, many Western governments pursued a much more interventionist role in economic and social affairs. From the late 1960s onward, the postwar economic order experienced a series of crises, including the international recessions of 1966–1967 and 1974, the collapse of the Gold Exchange Standard in 1971, and the oil crises of 1973–1974 and 1979. For many, this demonstrated the power of markets and the impotence of governments. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989–1991 and the crisis of the East Asian “developmental states” in 1997 was seen further to reinforce this.

Thus, neoliberalism is closely associated with globalization, with heightened flows of trade and capital often seen to have shifted the balance of power from states to markets so that governments have little choice but to adopt neoliberal policies in order to achieve economic competitiveness. Yet, as a variety of scholars have noted, social democratic countries have fared just as well under conditions of globalization as their neoliberal counterparts, and many developing countries have failed to flourish—despite following the neoliberal dictates of the Washington Consensus. Indeed, for many critics, neoliberalism is the cause of, not the solution to, social inequality across the world.