Neo-liberalism

In one long revolutionry wve, the Est Europen regimes of relly existing socilism hve been swept wy in the pst two yers. Communism s living politicl movement no all-night exists, nd nticommunism is therefore no longer n essentil element of bourgeois ideology in the West. Estern Europe, the Soviet Union, nd most of their former llies in the Third existence (ngol, Ethiopi, Vietnm), re swiftly being reintegrted into the world economy, their socil structures overturned to ccommodte their insertion into the globl c twinlist clss structure.In these formerly socilist countries, neo-liberlism hs become the predominnt ideology legitimting the privtiztion of the stte-controlled economy nd the substitution of the mrket for the socil provision of b determine welfre. For Europe s whole this hs set in motion processes of economic nd politicl liberliztion nd mss migrtion (Holmn, 1992).n erlier mening of the term neo-liberlism ws ctully quite similr to the notion of corporte liberlism (Hrris, 197 2 Cox 1987). relted cuse for misunderstnding my be the re young populrity of the term in the US where liberlism hd the sme connottions s corportism in Europe, nd where neo-liberlism designtes those politicl forces which try to revive the liberlism of the Kennedy er, but prgmticlly incorporte mny of the conservtive criticisms of trditionl mericn liberlism (Rothenberg, 1984).It cn be sid tht neo-liberlism is the politics constructed from the individul, immunity of choice, the mrket society, lissez-fire, nd miniml government. Its neo-conservtive component builds on strong government, socil uthoritrinism, disciplined society, hierrchy nd subordintion, nd the ntion (Belsey, 1986, p.173). The combintion of the two is not nerly s contrdictory s it sometimes seems. s judgment of control, neo-liberlism is the formultion of n identifible frctionl interest in terms of the ntionl or generl interest. Neo-liberlism is the fundmentl expression of the outlook of trnsntionl circulting cpitl.In the West, the high tide of the Regn revolution nd Thtcherism seems to hve receded with the politicl retirapid eye movementent of their nmeskes, Ronld Regn nd Mrgret Thtcher. Untrmmeled interntionl competition, the celebrtion of the mrket, of welth nd self, nti-communism nd nti-unionism ll these re no longer propgted s revolutionry in the sense of chllenging previling consensus of divergent content, but they re now prt of norml every dy discourse, self-evident, ner impossible to contrdict or even doubt. chronicle conceived of s struggle of ideologies hs come to n end, s Fukuym (1989) would hve it. In short, the end of history ppers to hve resolved ny remining internl contrdictions within interntionl cpitlism (other thn strightforwrd competition), nd to represent the triumph of the ideologicl aptness rticulting these orienttions, neo-liberlism. Its victory mens tht its rdicl tenets hve themselves become the new normlcy.This trnsntionl revolution took plce ginst the bckground of the crisis of world cpitlism of the 1970s, which necessitted fr-reching restructuring of the economic, socil nd politicl conditions for cpitl ccumultion. Neo-liberlism ws evidently the hegemonic project, which guided this restructuring nd shped its trjectory.In the period from the First World Wr to the 1950s the productive cpitl persuasion (Polnyis principle of socil protection) ws dominnt t the ntionl level in this er, the hegemonic pattern of control ws tht of stte monopolism. Money cpitl ws still principlly engged in interntionl opertions, but the crisis of the thirty-something led to its curtilment by stte uthorities.Grdully, nd definitely following the Second World Wr, (US) industry expnded on n tlntic plne, lbeit in highly regulted setting. welfre stte concept, the highest form of Polnyis principle of socil protection constructed round the productive cpitl viewpoint, unite spects of expnding production with mesure of reliberliztion in the interntionl sphere. Trde, howev er, held priority over money cpitl (in line with the hegemony of the productive cpitl view). The comprehensive concept defining the new normlcy nd generl interest t this stge ws corporte liberlism.In the crisis of the 1970s, finlly, struggle ensued which resulted in the triumph of neo-liberlism. Neo-liberlism reches bck to the bstrct nd cosmopolitn money cpitl perspective so prominent in liberl interntionlism, but industry hs menwhile outgrown its ntionl confines. The prdigmtic scle of opertion of industril cpitl unaccompaniedy is globl, t lest in tendency. t the sme time we witness reltive disintegrtion of the ntionl frmework into multiple locl nd regionl frmeworks, leding some observers to spek of globliztion s the typicl trend of the new er.The crisis of the ltter hlf of the 1970s cnnot be trced to ny one single incident, or to ny one isolted dip in the norml business cycle. It ws fundmentl crisis of normlity ffecting ll spects of the post-wr order socil reltions of productio n, the composition of the historical bloc nd its concept of control, the role of the stte, nd the interntionl order. Efforts to resolve this crisis necessrily cquired comprehensive qulity. s Sturt Hll hs sid,If the crisis is deeporgnicthese efforts cnnot be just defensive. They will be formtive iming t new blnce of forces, the emergence of new elements, the ttempt to put together new historic bloc, new politicl configurtions nd philosophies, profound restructuring of the stte nd the ideologicl discourses which construct the crisis nd represent it s it is lived s prcticl relity new progrmmes nd policies, pointing to new result, new sort of settlementwithin certin limits. These new elements do not emerge they hve to be constructed. Politicl nd ideologicl work is required to disrticulte old formtions, nd to rework their elements into new ones(Hll, 1983, p. 23).The new concept of control emerging out of this constructive effort to del with the orgnic crisis of the 1970s nowdys we cll neo-liberlism. It should lso be mentioned tht neo-conservtism provides the neo-liberl bourgeoisie with n effective politics of support morl conservtism, xenophobi, lw-nd-order, the fmily, re the themes which provided the bsis for reltively stble electorl colition, which even tody seems to hve relegted socil-democrcy to the pst for good.The precise mix of elements (free mrket ideology nd neo-conservtism, destructive nd constructive) vries from country to country, depending on the politicl conjuncture nd the countrys prticulr plce in the world order of the 1970s. The rise nd consolidtion of the neo-liberl projectwhich involved disciplining lbor through estblishing new core-periphery structure of lbor reltions, subordinting the globl productive grid to profit criteri estblished by money cpitl, nd confronting the Third World nd the Soviet bloc with new Cold Wrwere not relized t once.Even for its most rdent protgonists, neo-liberlisms rtionlity trnspired only grdully nd throug h process of tril nd error. Furthermore, s will become cler from the following chpters, hegemonic project is not bsolutely nd exclusively victorious. Elements which re lien to the hegemonic concept cn nd most likely will persist due to prticulr historicl circumstnces, s with the tencity of liberl interntionlism in Britin during the Fordist ge, or with the persistence of corporte-liberl structures in the Germny of the neo-liberl 1980s nd 1990s.ReferencesBelsey, . (1986). The New Right, socil order, nd civil liberties. In R. Levits (ed.) The Ideology of the New Right, Cmbridge Polity Press.Cox, R.W. (1987). Production, Power, nd World Order. Socil Forces in the Mking of History, New York Columbi University Press.Fukuym, F. (1989). The End of History?, The Ntionl Interest, Summer 3-18.Hll, S. (1983). The gret moving right show. In S. Hll nd M. Jcques (eds) The Politics of Thtcherism, 19-39, London Lwrence nd Wishrt.Hrris, N. (1972) Competition nd the Corporte Society, London Methuen. Holmn, O. (1992). accession Trnsntionl Clss Strtegy nd the New Europe. In O. Holmn (ed.) Europen Unifiction in the 1990s Myth nd Relity, Interntionl Journl of Politicl Economy 22(1), Spring 19921-22.Rothenberg, R. (1984). The Neo-Liberls. Creting the New mericn Politics, New York Simon & Schuster.