Unit 2 - Social Welfare in the Age of Neoliberalism Flashcards
What is neoliberalism?
Economic philosophy and ideology in which proponents argue for policies that further open up markets including deregulation and market liberalisation
What is Homo Economicus and who came up with it?
Adam Smith, The view/theory that people are isolated individuals whose actions reflect mostly their material self-interests
What is the “Competitive Advantage” theory and who came up with it?
David Ricardo, Argument that free trade is a win-win situation for all parties involved, because it allows each country to specialise in the production of those commodities for which it had a competitive advantage
What is Classical Liberalism?
Viewed producers as the servants of consumers who pursued their material needs and wants in whatever way they saw fit. Is dedicated to the protection of private property and the legal enforcement of contracts
What are Egalitarian Liberals?
Reformatted “Classic Liberals” after The Great Depression
How did Egalitarian Liberals evolve from Classical Liberalism?
They criticised Classical Liberalism for its inability to recognize that modern capitalism had to be subject to certain controls & regulations by a strong, secular State
What are the 5 key points of neoliberalism?
The rule of the market, cutting public expenditure for social services, reducing the safety-net for the poor, deregulation, privatization
What happened in 2009 as a result of neoliberalism policies?
The 2009 Financial Crisis
How did neoliberalism contribute to the ending of the England “Corn Laws”?
Competitive Advantage theory was used by 19th-century liberals like Richard Cobden as a formidable ideological weapon
What led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund and what was its purpose?
The 1944 Bretton Woods conference, purpose was to provide financial reconstruction for Europe’s post-war loans, and eventually expanded to funding projects in developing countries
What is the Golden Age of Controlled Capitalism?
An economy based on mass production, happened between 1945-1975. It was profitable because enough Middle-Class families could afford what was being produced
What are critiques of neoliberalism?
The rich continue to get rich, and the poor continue to sink below the poverty line, until the inflation of credit within the banks/World Bank crashes the economy.
What were neoliberals created from?
The collapse of the Golden Age of Capitalism
What has changed about neoliberal’s policies since the collapse of the Golden Age of Capitalism?
Neoliberals now have a focus on globalization within the economy + free trade markets
