Neoliberalism Flashcards
What is neoliberalism?
“Neoliberalism is in the first instance a theory of political economic practices that proposes that human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private property rights, free markets, and free trade. The role of the state is to create and preserve an institutional framework appropriate to such practices.”
Harvey, 2005
What is the dual role of neoliberalism?
It is both an economic theory and a political stance.
What were Hayek and Friedman’s views on the subject?
Hayek: Market could better govern society than any individual.
Friedman: Move away from welfare state, Keynesian dying out.
How is the state involved in neoliberalism?
Privatization of Public Services – Health, Education, Transport, Water and Energy.
Roll-back of the state
- Removal of regulations for managing the environment
- The state must support the freedom of the market
Pursuit of unrestrained international capital flows
- Allowing the expansion of multinational enterprise, FDI, and implementation (encouraged or imposed) of neoliberal policies in other states (ex: Iraq)
Head of IMF and World Bank, instrumental in opening up markets and trading in an unregulated way, leading to global expansion.
How are citizens involved in neoliberalism?
Citizens as consumers
Attack on organized labour and unions
Increasingly inequalities and ‘Merit’ based success
What is financialisation?
The increasing size and influence of the financial sector.
How is nature implicated in neoliberalism?
Environmental Governance
- The roll-back of regulation and “commodification of everything”
- Pollution, Climate Change, and Environmental Justice
- Payment for Ecosystem Services – Biodiversity offsetting and/or conservation banking.
- Natural Capital
Extraction, Resources, and Wealth
- Structural Adjustment programs, FDI
