Editing Neoliberalism (section)

=== Current usage ===
Historian Elizabeth Shermer argued that the term gained popularity largely among left-leaning academics in the 1970s to "describe and decry a late twentieth-century effort by policymakers, think-tank experts, and industrialists to condemn social-democratic reforms and unapologetically implement free-market policies";<ref>{{cite journal |first=Elizabeth Tandy |last=Shermer |title=Review |journal=[[Journal of Modern History]] |date=December 2014 |volume=86 |number=4 |pages=884–90|doi=10.1086/678713}}</ref> economic historian Phillip W. Magness notes its reemergence in academic literature in the mid-1980s, after French philosopher [[Michel Foucault]] brought attention to it.<ref name=hegemonic-neoliberalism>{{Cite news |url=https://www.aier.org/article/fairytale-hegemonic-neoliberalism |title=The Fairytale of Hegemonic Neoliberalism |last=Magness |first=Phillip W. |date=June 5, 2019 |work=[[American Institute for Economic Research]] |access-date=July 6, 2019}}</ref>

{{quote box|At a base level we can say that when we make reference to 'neoliberalism', we are generally referring to the new political, economic and social arrangements within society that emphasize market relations, re-tasking the role of the state, and [[individual responsibility]]. Most scholars tend to agree that neoliberalism is broadly defined as the extension of competitive [[market (economics)|markets]] into all areas of life, including the [[economy]], [[politics]] and [[society]].| source = ''The Handbook of Neoliberalism''{{sfnp|Springer|Birch|MacLeavy|2016|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=M5qkDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 2]}} |width=35% |align=right |quoted=1 |salign=right}}
[[File:US federal minimum wage if it had kept pace with productivity. Also, the inflation-adjusted minimum wage.png|thumb|350px|[[US federal minimum wage]] if it had kept pace with productivity. Also, the real minimum wage.]]
''Neoliberalism'' is contemporarily used to refer to market-oriented reform policies such as "eliminating [[price control]]s, [[deregulation|deregulating]] [[capital markets]], lowering [[trade barriers]]" and reducing, especially through [[privatization]] and [[austerity]], state influence in the economy.{{sfnp|Boas|Gans-Morse|2009}} It is also commonly associated with the economic policies introduced by [[Margaret Thatcher]] in the United Kingdom and [[Ronald Reagan]] in the United States.<ref name="For Business Ethics"/> Some scholars note it has a number of distinct usages in different spheres:{{sfnp|Steger|Roy|2010|p=50}}

* As a [[development model]], it refers to the rejection of [[structuralist economics]] in favor of the [[Washington Consensus]].
* As an [[ideology]], it denotes a conception of freedom as an overarching [[Value (ethics)|social value]] associated with reducing state functions to those of a [[minimal state]].
* As a [[public policy]], it involves the privatization of public economic sectors or services, the deregulation of private corporations, sharp decrease of [[government budget deficit]]s and reduction of spending on [[public works]].

There is debate over the meaning of the term. Sociologists [[Fred L. Block]] and [[Margaret Somers]] claim there is a dispute over what to call the influence of free-market ideas which have been used to justify the retrenchment of [[New Deal]] programs and policies since the 1980s: neoliberalism, ''[[laissez-faire]]'' or "free market ideology".<ref>{{cite book |first1=Fred L. |last1=Block |author1-link=Fred L. Block |first2=Margaret R. |last2=Somers |url=http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674050716 |title=The Power of Market Fundamentalism: Karl Polanyi's Critique |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |date=2014 |isbn=978-0674050716 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=FSuAAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 3] |access-date=2014-11-13 |archive-date=2021-04-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429085412/https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674050716 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Other academics such as Susan Braedley, Meg Luxton, and Robert W. McChesney, assert that neoliberalism is a political philosophy which seeks to "liberate" the processes of [[capital accumulation]].<ref name="BraedleyLuxton">Susan Braedley and Meg Luxton, ''[http://www.mqup.ca/neoliberalism-and-everyday-life-products-9780773536739.php Neoliberalism and Everyday Life],'' ([[McGill-Queen's University Press]], 2010), {{ISBN|0773536922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=CvD-6GQWr04C&pg=PA3 p. 3]</ref> In contrast, [[Frances Fox Piven]] sees neoliberalism as essentially hyper-[[capitalism]].<ref>Frances Goldin, Debby Smith, Michael Smith (2014). ''Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA.'' [[Harper Perennial]]. {{ISBN|0062305573}} p. 125</ref> [[Robert W. McChesney]], while defining neoliberalism similarly as "capitalism with the gloves off", goes on to assert that the term was largely unknown by the general public in 1998, particularly in the [[United States]].{{sfnp|Chomsky|McChesney|2011|pp=7–8}} [[Lester Spence]] uses the term to critique trends in Black politics, defining neoliberalism as "the general idea that society works best when the people and the institutions within it work or are shaped to work according to market principles".<ref>{{cite book |first=Lester |last=Spence |author-link=Lester Spence |title=Knocking the Hustle: Against the Neoliberal Term in Black Politics |publisher=[[Punctum Books]] |date=2016 |page=3}}</ref> According to [[Philip Mirowski]], neoliberalism views the market as the greatest information processor, superior to any human being. It is hence considered as the arbiter of truth. [[Adam Kotsko]] describes neoliberalism as [[political theology]], as it goes beyond simply being a formula for an economic policy agenda and instead infuses it with a moral ethos that "aspires to be a complete way of life and a holistic worldview, in a way that previous models of capitalism did not."{{sfnp|Kotsko|2018|p=6}}

Neoliberalism is distinct from liberalism insofar as it does not advocate ''laissez-faire'' economic policy, but instead is highly constructivist and advocates a strong state to bring about market-like reforms in every aspect of society.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.the-utopian.org/post/53360513384/the-thirteen-commandments-of-neoliberalism |title=The Thirteen Commandments of Neoliberalism |last1=Mirowski |first1=Philip |website=The Utopian |access-date=March 26, 2018}}</ref> Anthropologist [[Jason Hickel]] also rejects the notion that neoliberalism necessitates the retreat of the state in favor of totally free markets, arguing that the spread of neoliberalism required substantial state intervention to establish a global 'free market'.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions |last=Hickel |first=Jason |date=2018 |publisher=[[Windmill Books]] |isbn=978-1786090034 |page=218 |quote="People commonly think of neoliberalism as an ideology that promotes totally free markets, where the state retreats from the scene and abandons all interventionist policies. But if we step back a bit, it becomes clear that the extension of neoliberalism has entailed powerful new forms of state intervention. The creation of a global 'free market' required not only violent coups and dictatorships backed by Western governments, but also the invention of a totalizing global bureaucracy – the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO and bilateral free-trade agreements – with reams of new laws, backed up by the military power of the United States."}}</ref> [[Naomi Klein]] states that the three policy pillars of neoliberalism are "[[privatization]] of the public sphere, [[deregulation]] of the corporate sector, and the lowering of [[income]] and [[corporate taxes]], paid for with cuts to [[public spending]]".<ref>{{cite book |title=This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate |title-link=This Changes Everything (book) |last=Klein |first=Naomi |date=2014 |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |isbn=978-1451697391 |pages=72–73 |author-link=Naomi Klein}}</ref>

Neoliberalism has a history of being used as a [[pejorative]] by critics. Additionally, Neoliberalism has outpaced similar terms such as [[monetarism]], [[neoconservatism]], the [[Washington Consensus]] and "market reform" in scholarly writing.{{sfnp|Boas|Gans-Morse|2009}} ''The Handbook of Neoliberalism'', for instance, posits that the term has "become a means of identifying a seemingly ubiquitous set of market-oriented policies as being largely responsible for a wide range of social, political, ecological and economic problems".{{sfnp|Springer|Birch|MacLeavy|2016|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=M5qkDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 2]}} Its use in this manner has been criticized by those who advocate for policies characterized as neoliberal.{{sfnp|Kotz|2015|p=74}} The ''Handbook'', for example, further argues that "such lack of specificity [for the term] reduces its capacity as an analytic frame. If neoliberalism is to serve as a way of understanding the transformation of society over the last few decades, then the concept is in need of unpacking."{{sfnp|Springer|Birch|MacLeavy|2016|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=M5qkDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 2]}} Historian Daniel Stedman Jones has similarly said that the term "is too often used as a catch-all shorthand for the horrors associated with globalization and recurring financial crises".{{sfnp|Stedman Jones|2014|p=2}} 

Several writers have criticized ''neoliberal'' as an insult or slur used by leftists against liberals and varieties of liberalism that leftists disagree with.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Iber |first=Patrick |date=2018-04-23 |title=Worlds Apart |magazine=The New Republic |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/147810/worlds-apart-neoliberalism-shapes-global-economy |access-date=2023-06-19 |issn=0028-6583}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Chait |first=Jonathan |date=2017-07-16 |title=How 'Neoliberalism' Became the Left's Favorite Insult of Liberals |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/how-neoliberalism-became-the-lefts-favorite-insult.html |access-date=2023-06-19 |website=Intelligencer |language=en-us}}</ref> British journalist [[Will Hutton]] called neoliberal "an unthinking leftist insult" that "stifle[s] debate."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hutton |first=Will |date=2019-12-29 |title='Neoliberal' is an unthinking leftist insult. All it does is stifle debate |language=en-GB |work=The Observer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/29/neoliberal-is-unthinking-leftist-insult-all-it-does-it-stifle-debate |access-date=2023-06-19 |issn=0029-7712}}</ref> On the other hand, many scholars believe it retains a meaningful definition. Writing in ''[[The Guardian]]'', Stephen Metcalf posits that the publication of the 2016 [[IMF]] paper "Neoliberalism: Oversold?"<ref name="Ostry2016">{{cite journal |last1=Ostry |first1=Jonathan D. |last2=Loungani |first2=Prakash |last3=Furceri |first3=Davide |year=2016 |title=Neoliberalism: Oversold? |url=http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2016/06/pdf/ostry.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527151805/http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2016/06/pdf/ostry.pdf |archive-date=May 27, 2016 |url-status=live |journal=[[International Monetary Fund|IMF Finance & Development]] |volume=53 |issue=2}}</ref> helps "put to rest the idea that the word is nothing more than a political slur, or a term without any analytic power".<ref>{{cite news |last=Metcalf |first=Stephen |date=August 18, 2017 |title=Neoliberalism: the idea that swallowed the world |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/aug/18/neoliberalism-the-idea-that-changed-the-world |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=August 22, 2017}}</ref> [[Gary Gerstle]] argues that neoliberalism is a legitimate term,<ref>{{cite news |last=Steinmetz-Jenkins |first=Daniel |date=April 13, 2022 |title=Has Neoliberalism Really Come to an End? |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/neoliberalism-gary-gerstle/ |work=[[The Nation]] |access-date=July 1, 2022}}</ref> and describes it as "a creed that calls explicitly for unleashing capitalism's power."{{sfnp|Gerstle|2022|pp=4–5}} He distinguishes neoliberalism from traditional conservatism, as the latter values respect for traditions and bolstering the institutions which reinforce them, whereas the former seeks to disrupt and overcome any institutions which stand in the way.{{sfnp|Gerstle|2022|pp=4–5}}

Radhika Desai, director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group at the [[University of Manitoba]], argues that global capitalism reached its peak in 1914, just prior to the two great wars, [[Revolutions of 1917–1923|anti-capitalist revolutions]] and [[Keynesian]] reforms, and the purpose of neoliberalism was to restore capitalism to the preeminence it once enjoyed. She argues that this process has failed as contemporary neoliberal capitalism has fostered a "slowly unfolding economic disaster" and bequeathed to the world increased inequalities, societal divisions, economic misery and a lack of meaningful politics.{{sfnp|Desai|2022|pp=6–8}}