Neoliberalism, Part 1.
Neoliberalism - A modern take on classical liberalism which tends to favor free-market capitalism.
(T)he ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slave of some defunct economist.”
John Maynard Keynes,The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money(1936), p.383.
Definitions and defining features
That survival of the fittest through eternal competition between self-interested parties is, practically speaking, the only law upon which human society can realistically be ordered;
That, in the moral hierarchy, financial wealth equates with life success which equates with virtue; and
That man [sic] is, if not an island, then, at most, a part of an archipelago of islands of shared interests, answerable only to himself, his peers and, possibly, his God, in that order.
A belief that the market ensures that everyone gets what they deserve.
Keynes - level of economic activity is determined by effective aggregate demand.
neoliberalism suggests
- theory of income distribution - factors of production—labor and capital—get paid what they are worth through the market.
- its theory of aggregate employment determination.
Readings
Henry Giroux, The Terror of Neoliberalism: Rethinking the Significance of Cultural Politics
Thomas Palley, Keynesianism to Neoliberalism: Shifting Paradigms in Economics
Scott Lash & John Urry, "Introduction," The End of Organized Capitalism
nchjaffna.com/index.php/lib/download/asin=0299116743&type=file
Heavily quoted in the Giroux, Lisa Duggan's "The Twilight of Equality?" Chapter: Downsizing Democracy
https://www.facebook.com/download/preview/1916445621965698
The Terror of Neoliberalism: Rethinking the Significance of Cultural Politics
Defines NL as a more 'virulent and brutal form of market capitalism' and the 'belief that the market should be the organizing principle for all political, social, and economic decisions.
Robert Brenner's introduction to Verso's new journal, Catalyst:
http://catalyst-journal.com/vol1/no1/editorial-robert-brenner.html