ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how neoliberalism is being re-forged in the crucible of pandemic and war and whether it will take a pseudo-civic form or acquire authoritarian hues in the leading neoliberal financialised capitalisms. It provides a brief review of claims that neoliberalism has ended and highlight the extent to which responses to the pandemic remained recognisably within neoliberal parameters before going on to consider the various avatars of neoliberalism hitherto. The chapter then shows how, rather than competitive markets, the preservation of corporate power constitutes the essence of neoliberalism before concluding by considering how pseudo-civic neoliberalism or a more authoritarian version would endeavour to preserve that essence. Those who consider neoliberalism to be about ‘free markets and free trade’ enforced by a minimal ‘nightwatchman’ state will find that its long record is littered with broken taboos.
