ABSTRACT
In order to understand neoliberalism’s resilience post-2008 it is important to discuss the origins of the ideology and whose interests it serves. By doing so, one can clearly observe that the transnational internal bourgeoisie that have emerged during the era of globalization are the direct beneficiaries of the policy prescriptions promoted by the free market orthodoxy and thus, naturally, will defend these interests. By the late 1970s, the capitalist order under the leadership of
Washington was in a state of evolution. Previously, whilst the global economy expanded and the portability of international capital was restricted, the ideological underpinnings within the capitalist world order were essentially hegemonic. A post-war “Golden Age” compromise between capital and labor via various Keynesian welfare schemes (originally associated with the New Deal) had established a tacit consensus by which the capitalist system was managed.1 “Extremists” on either the Left or Right were marginalized and centrist impulses (always favorable to capitalism for sure) were dominant. At the same time, labor was granted a junior role via trade union representation in a hegemonic global vision aimed at securing a liberal capitalist world order. This had been facilitated by the way mass production was institutionalized (initially in the United States) under a Fordist mechanization of the labor process.2
