ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to historicize neoliberalism beyond political polemics, not normatively but analytically. Since the global crisis of 2008, there have been clear signs that neoliberalism has passed its zenith, even though it continues to be a significant force. The chapter seeks to answer why neoliberalism became so firmly established around 1989, especially in post-communist Europe. European critics of free market capitalism often attribute the rise of neoliberalism to the influence of the United States and global finance organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Neoliberalism is based on an ideal of free, autonomous, self-balancing markets and rationally acting market players. Criticism of neoliberalism in the West and the success of alternative paths of modernization, such as the Chinese path, seem to have broken neoliberalism’s global hegemony. The aftereffects of neoliberalism are evident in rising social tensions, increased social and regional imbalance, and political counterreactions, most notably populism and nationalism.
