by YULIA GROMOVA
The collapse of neoliberalism has been widely discussed long before the outbreak of COVID-19. The pandemic has even further exposed deep shortcomings in the dominant mode of global economic and political organization. But what exactly does it mean to diagnose the crisis of the neoliberal project?
It depends on how you define the term. Neoliberalism is often associated with free trade, globalization and a laissez-faire approach to the economic process—the minimal intervention of the government into the economic affairs of individuals and society. Defenders of neoliberalism believe that continued economic growth will lead to technological innovation, expansion of the free market, and eventually more jobs and prosperity for all. They argue that “a rising tide lifts all boats” despite the inequalities that may result. Critics, on the other hand, assert that neoliberalism increases financial instability, encourages the presence of monopolies, and deprives sovereign nations of the right to self-determination.
Quinn Slobodian, a historian and Associate Professor at Wellesley College, is taking another approach. In his book Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism, he defines neoliberalism less as a project of economics, and more of law, statecraft, and institution building. Slobodian debunks the common belief that neoliberal globalists aimed to unite free market capitalism with democracy and envisioned a single world market without borders. He argues that neoliberals did not actually believe in self-regulating markets as autonomous entities. Neither did they see democracy and capitalism as synonymous. In fact, he writes “the neoliberal project was focused on designing institutions—not to liberate markets but to encase them, to inoculate capitalism against the threat of democracy.”
Understanding the inner logic of neoliberal doctrine is impossible without considering the whole history of the twentieth century. In his book, Slobodian traces the history of the Vienna school of neoliberalism from the 1930s onwards. He tells a story of its core ideologists—Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and others—and their century-long endeavor to introduce “a system of multilevel governance, as a solution to a fundamental quandary of political economy in the modern era—the conflict between private capital rights and democratic public rights.”
Yulia Gromova spoke to Quinn Slobodian about the history of the neoliberal movement and the role of China in neoliberal globalization.
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