ABSTRACT
Neoliberalism is more than an ideology. It is the hegemonic theory and practice of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It has become dominant in world politics because of a lack of effective alternatives in a rapidly changing structural environment, especially globalisation. However, this chapter argues first of all that neoliberalism is characterised by a critical range of tensions and contradictions. At its heart is the concept of competition, not only in the economic system but also in human society and behaviour generally; social behaviour is merely the sum total of individuals’ actions. People are seen as generating modernity and progress in a complex range of ways, biological, metaphysical, evolutionary and ideological. The main policy dimensions include free trade, financial orthodoxy, arm’s-length regulation, privatisation, the cutback of public services and the like, each of which has given rise to significant critiques and political conflicts. However, neoliberalism has been ‘overdetermined’. It is deeply embedded today in both policy-making and discourse despite – but partly because of – these tensions. This chapter argues that the fundamental paradox is between whether neoliberalism derives from spontaneous human behaviour, like classical liberalism, or whether it requires a strong state to monitor and enforce it, as in Ordoliberalism.
