Political Neoliberalism

Abstract Commonly rejected as shrill and overspent, “neoliberalism,” this book argues, is a useful lens for understanding a wide range of political phenomena: those pertaining to the order of advanced Western societies, but also others that signal rupture at the extreme right and left ends of the political spectrum, often referred to as identity politics. With respect to order, neoliberalism undermines the liberal-democratic synthesis that had brought prosperity and stability after World War II. A tension with, if not hostility to, democracy is the common denominator of neoliberalism’s multiple political forms, from authoritarianism to governance (and several more). The iron feature of the neoliberal condition is to be “without alternative,” which fully imposed itself once the political left, in terms of the Third Way, embraced its principles. In response to the center right–left consensus on market-conformant principles and policies, there have been radical parties and movements that signal rupture: right-wing populism, on the one hand, and left identity politics, on the other, both mutually reinforcing one another in an escalating spiral of conflict. However, rather than repairing the notorious democracy deficit of the neoliberal order, the explicitly illiberal leanings of these forces of rupture, despite their claims to be authentically democratic, make them a threat to liberal democracy, not a cure to its problems. Against early hopes for a return of a public-good minded and “caring” state, political neoliberalism also survived the COVID-19 pandemic unscathed, and there is no force on the horizon that could put it off-track.