Neoliberalism as an offshoot of liberalism has become an important political and philosophical force that has continued to shape the conduct of the global economy since 1947. Neoliberalism advocates individual liberty and freedom through the establishment of institutional structures that support private property rights, free markets, and free trade. Advocates of neoliberalism privilege the market above the state in allocation of resources, as they see the state as a hindrance to economic growth. Consequently, neoliberalism promotes an economic system that facilitates the dominance of the market, private accumulation, profit maximization, and extreme individualism.

By promoting what David Harvey calls accumulation by dispossession, neoliberalism has, over the past three decades, accentuated world poverty, inequality, and social dislocation both at the core and at the periphery of global ...