ABSTRACT
During the first post-war decades until about 1980, virtually the whole developed capitalist world went through "egalitarian advances of existential rights and respect and a general equalisation of health and life expectancy, as well as major national equalisations of resources of income and education". Inequality has not always increased. This chapter shows how neoliberalism has derived strength from philosophical support in neoclassical economics with its liberal outlook on people. Neoliberalism can be defined as a political project, characterised by extending competitive market forces, consolidating a market-friendly constitution, and promoting individual freedom. The three principles have guided institutional changes. The first principle extending competitive market forces has led to new forms for actualising the systemic causes of resource, health and structural inequality. The second consolidating a market-friendly constitution and third promoting individual freedom principles, in their turn, have provided the systemic causes of cultural inequality with new forms for its actualisation.
