Jamie Peck
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199580576
- eISBN:
- 9780191595240
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199580576.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Political Economy
Amongst intellectuals and activists, neoliberalism has become a potent signifier for the kind of free-market thinking that has dominated politics for the past three decades. Forever associated with ...
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Amongst intellectuals and activists, neoliberalism has become a potent signifier for the kind of free-market thinking that has dominated politics for the past three decades. Forever associated with the conviction politics of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, the free-market project has since become synonymous with the ‘Washington Consensus’ on international development policy and the phenomenon of corporate globalization, where it has come to mean privatization, deregulation, and the opening up of new markets. But beyond its utility as a protest slogan as a shorthand signifier for the political-economic Zeitgeist, what do we know about where neoliberalism came from and how it spread? Who are the neoliberals, and why do they studiously avoid the label? This book presents a radical critique of the free-market project, from its origins in the first half of the 20th century through to its near-death experience in the recent global economic crisis, from the utopian dreams of Friedrich von Hayek, through the dogmatic theories of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School, to the hope and hubris of Obamanomics. The book traces how neoliberalism went from crank science to common sense in the period between the Great Depression and the age of Obama. It is an exploration of the antisocial life of the free-market project, examined in its cradles of invention and in its zones of extension and contestation. In the process, the book elaborates (and puts to work) an understanding of neoliberalism as an adaptive, unevenly developed regulatory project.Less
Amongst intellectuals and activists, neoliberalism has become a potent signifier for the kind of free-market thinking that has dominated politics for the past three decades. Forever associated with the conviction politics of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, the free-market project has since become synonymous with the ‘Washington Consensus’ on international development policy and the phenomenon of corporate globalization, where it has come to mean privatization, deregulation, and the opening up of new markets. But beyond its utility as a protest slogan as a shorthand signifier for the political-economic Zeitgeist, what do we know about where neoliberalism came from and how it spread? Who are the neoliberals, and why do they studiously avoid the label? This book presents a radical critique of the free-market project, from its origins in the first half of the 20th century through to its near-death experience in the recent global economic crisis, from the utopian dreams of Friedrich von Hayek, through the dogmatic theories of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School, to the hope and hubris of Obamanomics. The book traces how neoliberalism went from crank science to common sense in the period between the Great Depression and the age of Obama. It is an exploration of the antisocial life of the free-market project, examined in its cradles of invention and in its zones of extension and contestation. In the process, the book elaborates (and puts to work) an understanding of neoliberalism as an adaptive, unevenly developed regulatory project.
Johanna Bockman
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804775663
- eISBN:
- 9780804778961
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804775663.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
The worldwide spread of neoliberalism has transformed economies, polities, and societies everywhere. In conventional accounts, American and Western European economists, such as Milton Friedman and ...
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The worldwide spread of neoliberalism has transformed economies, polities, and societies everywhere. In conventional accounts, American and Western European economists, such as Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek, sold neoliberalism by popularizing their free market ideas and radical criticisms of the state. Rather than focusing on the agency of a few prominent, conservative economists, this book reveals a dialogue among many economists on both sides of the Iron Curtain about democracy, socialism, and markets. These discussions led to the transformations of 1989 and, unintentionally, the rise of neoliberalism. The book takes a truly transnational look at economists' professional ideas over 100 years across the capitalist West and the socialist East. Clearly translating complicated economic ideas and neoliberal theories, it presents a significant reinterpretation of Cold War history, the fall of communism, and the rise of today's dominant economic ideology.Less
The worldwide spread of neoliberalism has transformed economies, polities, and societies everywhere. In conventional accounts, American and Western European economists, such as Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek, sold neoliberalism by popularizing their free market ideas and radical criticisms of the state. Rather than focusing on the agency of a few prominent, conservative economists, this book reveals a dialogue among many economists on both sides of the Iron Curtain about democracy, socialism, and markets. These discussions led to the transformations of 1989 and, unintentionally, the rise of neoliberalism. The book takes a truly transnational look at economists' professional ideas over 100 years across the capitalist West and the socialist East. Clearly translating complicated economic ideas and neoliberal theories, it presents a significant reinterpretation of Cold War history, the fall of communism, and the rise of today's dominant economic ideology.
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804762403
- eISBN:
- 9780804772600
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804762403.003.0003
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
This chapter examines the moral obligations deriving from the principles of rights-based global justice. It shows that injustice is tied to moral obligations, and that moral judgments and thus ...
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This chapter examines the moral obligations deriving from the principles of rights-based global justice. It shows that injustice is tied to moral obligations, and that moral judgments and thus statements of justice are always prescriptive and never just declaratory. It also argues that the concept of justice is constitutively dependent on the ascription of responsibility. Moreover, the chapter considers Friedrich August von Hayek's argument that the notion of social justice is “empty and meaningless” in connection with the market, as well as Aristotle's claim that justice is the perfect and most complete virtue, perfect and imperfect obligations of justice, power and reasonableness, and the distinction between beneficence and obligations of justice.Less
This chapter examines the moral obligations deriving from the principles of rights-based global justice. It shows that injustice is tied to moral obligations, and that moral judgments and thus statements of justice are always prescriptive and never just declaratory. It also argues that the concept of justice is constitutively dependent on the ascription of responsibility. Moreover, the chapter considers Friedrich August von Hayek's argument that the notion of social justice is “empty and meaningless” in connection with the market, as well as Aristotle's claim that justice is the perfect and most complete virtue, perfect and imperfect obligations of justice, power and reasonableness, and the distinction between beneficence and obligations of justice.
Rowan Cruft
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- October 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198793366
- eISBN:
- 9780191884122
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198793366.003.0013
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Where Chapter 12 established that property belonging to those with reasonable wealth cannot be ‘natural’ rights grounded for the right-holder’s sake, Chapter 13 argues that such property is, rather, ...
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Where Chapter 12 established that property belonging to those with reasonable wealth cannot be ‘natural’ rights grounded for the right-holder’s sake, Chapter 13 argues that such property is, rather, groundable on the common good, as outlined by classical liberals like Hayek, Hume, and Smith. Surprisingly, this approach gives us reason to stop seeing most property as an individual right, but rather as duties-owed-to-the-community, duties that individuals control. This is because property—unlike many other rights that are not ‘for the right-holder’s sake’—does not wear on its face its ground in the common good. Owners’ rights are not like those of a teacher, say: rights clearly protecting an other-serving role. Conceiving property as a right therefore carries a major risk that it will be seen as ‘natural’, grounded by the right-holder’s own good. To avoid this, the chapter argues that we should start conceiving free markets as involving ‘controllership’, in which duties-not-to-trespass are owed to the community rather than to particular owners.Less
Where Chapter 12 established that property belonging to those with reasonable wealth cannot be ‘natural’ rights grounded for the right-holder’s sake, Chapter 13 argues that such property is, rather, groundable on the common good, as outlined by classical liberals like Hayek, Hume, and Smith. Surprisingly, this approach gives us reason to stop seeing most property as an individual right, but rather as duties-owed-to-the-community, duties that individuals control. This is because property—unlike many other rights that are not ‘for the right-holder’s sake’—does not wear on its face its ground in the common good. Owners’ rights are not like those of a teacher, say: rights clearly protecting an other-serving role. Conceiving property as a right therefore carries a major risk that it will be seen as ‘natural’, grounded by the right-holder’s own good. To avoid this, the chapter argues that we should start conceiving free markets as involving ‘controllership’, in which duties-not-to-trespass are owed to the community rather than to particular owners.
