Neoliberalism in 100 words

Neoliberalism is a bit of a political buzzword these days. Here's the shortest possible explanation you need to understand it

As government after government around the world lurches to the right, the word neoliberalism is back on the menu more than it’s been in recent years.

Anyone who wants to understand the current state of the world should understand neoliberalism. It’s tough though, because we’re talking about a political and economic philosophy (or as Adam Kotsko calls it, a political theology) that has been around in various forms since the 1930s (for example, it’s related to, but not the same thing as, libertarianism and it’s not simply free-market capitalism even though many who advocate for it call themselves free marketers).

Many people have written about it over the years, in the US, UK, and New Zealand contexts, among others. While some are heralding the demise of neoliberalism, others—and I agree with them—feel it is still the most accurate term and model to describe the current form of capitalism. It is not dead, it has become entrenched to the point that it is the water we swim in and the air we breathe.

With the new coalition government ramming through all kinds of policy at breakneck speed this past year, more and more people are seeking to understand where their policies come from and what they are intended to do. More and more editorials seem to be writing about it, although few are focusing explicitly on neoliberalism as such. I’ve written for Newsroom about the historical context and current face and consequences of neoliberalism both here and in the US this past year here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The trick is that it’s very hard (at least for me) to describe neoliberalism without getting bogged down in historical and ideological/philosophical/moralistic detours and terminology. Coming from an academic background with a tendency to be too inaccessible anyway, it is hard to translate what I’m trying to say to a general audience.

In fact, after my latest op-ed trying to explain why I thought the Regulatory Standards Bill was so dangerous and how it was part of a long-term strategy by neoliberal policymakers, my dad messaged me and said “I keep waiting for you to write an op-ed that truly awakens the public to the neoliberal motives of Seymour and his cohorts. But then I’m not sure that this is your audience.”

That kind of stung. But I needed to hear it. The thing is, I want the public to be my audience. But I will admit that I am sometimes my own worst enemy in terms of accessiblity. So my goal this year is to try to shed light on neoliberalism and capitalism in ways that are as accessible as I can make them to everyone.

As a first approximation, I’ve tried to boil down neoliberalism into its component parts in a way that my dad and anyone can understand. This is not to discount the historical and ideological explorations, which are well worth the effort to understand, but to try to make the reasoning and strategy behind neoliberalism in today’s political and economic environment as accessible as possible. I will be expanding on these points in later posts, but this is the simplest outline I can manage. So here goes…

1. Global capitalism is controlled by large multinational corporations

2. These corporations prioritize—above all else—maximizing profits

3. Governments around the world determine policy in ways that impact corporate profits¹

4. Corporations seek to influence both domestic and international law to maximize profits

5. Corporations spend billions of dollars recruiting and training politicians and economists and founding and funding political parties and public and private lobbying groups to influence policymaking and the public to normalize, adopt, and internalize capitalist values, morals, attitudes, and behaviors

6. The corporate program of influencing governments and international legal bodies to pass and uphold laws that favor corporate profits is called neoliberalism²

That’s it really. I’ll be delving more into these component parts as the year progresses, but if you look at the current coalition government’s policies (and any flavor of rightwing politics in the world) you can see the pieces of a neoliberal strategy falling into place. This is crucial if we want to see through the political rhetoric to the real reasoning and motives behind policy—especially when it comes to legislation like the Treaty Principles Bill and the Regulatory Standards Bill. Doing so will enable us to more effectively stand in solidarity with one another against corporate exploitation and not be suckered by corporate puppets like Seymour.

1. Examples of policies that harm corporate profits are requiring safety standards, minimum wages and working standards, environmental compliance, harm warnings, enforcing competition and eliminating monopolies. Conversely, loosening labor regulations and wages, relaxing safety standards, not requiring environmental impact mitigation, allowing companies to market to specific groups likely to be harmed by their products (e.g., alcohol and tobacco companies marketing to teenagers), and loose antitrust laws that allow monopolies increase corporate profits.

2. This differs from “laissez faire” capitalism and libertarianism in that neoliberalism proactively manipulates the levers of government power to make policy and regulations in favor of corporations, where laissez faire capitalism is typically thought to be against all regulations and libertarianism is suspicious of any government regulation of individual liberty.