Neo-liberalism

In one long revolutionry wve, the Est atomic number 63n regimes of relly existing socilism hve been swept wy in the pst two yers. Communism s living politicl movement no longer 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 scoreer llies in the trinity World (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 bsic welfre. For Europe s tout ensemble this hs set in motion processes of economic nd politicl liberliztion nd mss migrtion (Holmn, 1992).n erlier mening of the endpoint neo-liberlism ws ctully quite similr to the notion of corporte liberli sm (Hrris, 1972 be 1987). relted cuse for misunderstnding my be the re virgined populrity of the depot 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, except prgmticlly incorporte mny of the conservtive criticisms of trditionl mericn liberlism (Rothenberg, 1984).It cn be sid tht neo-liberlism is the political relation realizeed from the individul, freedom of choice, the mrket society, lissez-fire, nd miniml government. Its neo-conservtive grammatical constituent builds on strong government, socil uthoritrinism, discip pedigreed 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 concept of control, neo-liberlism is the formultion of n identifible frctionl interest in wrong of the ntionl or generl interest. Neo-liberlism is the farm animalmentl mat erialisation of the outlook of trnsntionl circulting c punctuatel.In the West, the spicy tide of the Regn revolution nd Thtcherism seems to hve receded with the politicl retirement 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 shore upgted s revolutionry in the sense of chllenging previling consensus of different content, but they re now prt of norml every dy discourse, self-evident, ner impossible to contrdict or even doubt. story 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 opinionated ny remining internl contrdictions within interntionl cpitlism (other thn strightforwrd competition), nd to represent the triumph of the ideologicall tendency rticulting these orienttions, neo-liberlism. Its victory mens tht its rdicl tenets hve themselves become the revolutio nary normlcy.This trnsntionl revolution took plce ginst the bckground of the crisis of world cpitlism of the mid-seventies, 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 fifties the productive cpitl perspective (Polnyis dogma of socil protection) ws dominnt t the ntionl direct in this er, the hegemonic concept 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 chase 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, combined spects of expndi ng production with mesure of reliberliztion in the interntionl sphere. Trde, however, held priority over notes cpitl (in line with the hegemony of the productive cpitl view). The comprehensive concept delineate 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 tody 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 model(a)l 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 crepuscle in the norml business cycle. It ws fundmentl crisis of normlity ffecting ll spects of the post-wr order socil reltions of production, the composition of the past 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 merely defensive. They will be formtive iming t new blnce of forces, the emergence of new elements, the ttempt to upchuck 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 undeniable to disrticulte old formtions, nd to rework their elements into new ones(Hll, 1983, p. 23).The new concept of control em erging 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 very(prenominal) 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 control grid to profit criteri estblished by money cpitl, nd confronting the Third World nd the Soviet bloc with new Cold Wrwere not r elized t once.Even for its most rdent protgonists, neo-liberlisms rtionlity trnspired only grdully nd through 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 radical 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 M fag of History, New York Columbi University Press.Fukuym, F. (1989). The End of History?, The Ntionl Interest, summertime 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 worryrt.Hrris, N. (1972) Competition nd the Corporte Society, London Methuen.Holmn, O. (1992). Introduction 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.