A Brief History of Neoliberalism

David Harvey, distinguished professor of Anthropology and Geography at City University New York, presents an incisive and highly readable critique of the doctrine of political economy known as Neoliberalism. Whether or not you agree with his arguments, the book is a high quality piece of scholarship that is immensely well researched. Harvey provides in depth citations to check his sources and evaluate the implications he presents of the supporting material. As the book deals with a subject fundamental to our material well being in analyzing the impact of political-economy, its importance cannot be overstated – at the least this work should provide a starting point for those uninitiated to join the debate and for those critical of social conditions and the reasons given for these conditions by elites, to further their theoretical understanding and potential for action. In considering the practical implications of the book, the hope is that a critical engagement and reading of the media and political policies as elements of neoliberal discourse should assist citizens to form broad oppositional movements geared to improving social conditions. Harvey presents not only an outline of neoliberalism as an economic theory, but as having a clearly identifiable moral argument. It is this moral argument and premise underpinning the validity of neoliberalism that needs to be disputed. The moral premise that individual effort and merit determines economic outcomes is highly attractive, but largely false as structural factors are more relevant to improving social mobility. This position is crucial in supporting neoliberal policy decisions as elites can point to the sanctity of an individual’s freedom in engaging deregulation and privatization. Under this ideology, free enterprise and entrepreneurialism form the cornerstone of democratic freedom. A result of this is to justify increased inequality as a natural conclusion to fair economic competition, which is in fact quite unfair as elites are free to insulate themselves from competition. This is made apparent through the persistent bailouts of institutions suffering losses due to financial speculation and the process of capital accumulation that continues with the socialization of losses, while profits are privatized. As Harvey argues convincingly, neoliberalism in practice diverges significantly from theory and betrays its own moral justification, while also failing to deliver economic security for citizens. Neoliberalism has become a singular program of capital accumulation for the elites with little concern to grow the economy, reduce social risk or improve conditions for the general population. Evidence supporting this view illustrates a pattern of fiscal risks, low growth and more troubling, authoritarian and military responses to social unrest, which can be examined both domestically in the U.S. (through incarceration) and abroad in terms of foreign policy influencing NGO’s such as the IMF and World Bank to support interventions favorable to American investment banks and corporations eager to increase foreign direct investment. Harvey also presents a global, comparative analysis of the state of neoliberal political economy that illustrates how the application of these policies has varied accordingly to unique domestic factors, such as the degree of embedded liberalism and the strength of labor. He includes North America, Europe and China, with a focus on Sweden and China as particularly interesting due to a modified implementation of neoliberal policy. In China this was owed to integrating market-based reform with the Communist command economy and in the case of Sweden, existing and strong support for labor-oriented policy dampened the ability for neoliberal reforms to achieve their aims. Evaluating neoliberalism requires considering whether as a system of political economy, it has achieved its aims. Arguably, economic policies of deregulation and privatization have lead to economic growth, yet comparatively, economies avoiding neoliberalism have produced better growth rates over the long term. So as an engine of growth, the theory fails to deliver. Moreover, the growth engendered by neoliberalism has been characterized by economic instability and financial volatility, which is likely due to a reduced role for government regulation and a lack of countercyclical demand side interventions. Where government intervention does occur, it often comes in the form of bailouts that socialize the losses of speculation and reckless corporate practices, while leaving the offending elites free to abscond with the profits. In practice, neoliberal theory and the regulatory capture defining its political control, supports arguably criminal financial practices and negligent economic management at the level of the firm and state. Trickle down supply side arguments have failed to improve economic conditions and social safety nets have been cut in order to protect the increasingly unstable fiscal position of countries pursuing neoliberal policies. Countries following a social market based approach have faired much better in terms of social indicators and this is the major take away from Harvey’s argument – if we wish to improve conditions, neoliberal policies must be resisted. This argument extends to both social conditions and economic, and fiscal stability. The socialization of private losses through bailouts and corporate subsidies present a defining element of the desperation of policy makers to preserve an illusion of normalcy while inequality and debt due to poor economic management increase. A more dangerous factor emerges through the neoconservative answer to social unrest due to poor economic management, which is to criminalize the conditions of poverty. The U.S. has risen to the forefront of the incarceration enterprise with a world leading number of inmates per capita (2013). Elites can be regarded as increasingly dangerous due to their failure to change course and double down on disastrous policies with authoritarian responses. Make no mistake, the situation is dire and Harvey concludes on a very cautiously optimistic tone by quoting President Roosevelt, who implicated excessive market freedoms in causing the Great Depression. Such a contention in the Bush or Obama era political environment would be seen as exceedingly socialist, and save for left egalitarians like Senator Bernie Sanders, this position is infrequently articulated or met with derision. Although it is gaining traction in popular support and the 2016 Democratic primary is telling both in terms of population level support for working class politics, but also the desperation of neoliberal establishment figures such as Hilary Clinton and her supporters to maintain the status quo and reject a labor oriented politics. This book overwhelmingly achieves its objectives in laying bare the dangerous turn neoliberal politics has taken due to its failures, as it lurches from one financial crisis to the next, its key actors seem more willing to court authoritarian policy responses to shore up the weakening legitimacy of their claim to provide the best, evidence based economic policy. Intellectual and financial elites including Paul Krugman and George Soros have changed their position on neoliberalism, moving from cheerleaders to sounding the alarm on the worsening social, economic and fiscal conditions resulting from the neoliberal experiment. In a time defined by divisive identity politics citizens seem disconnected from the most meaningful and uniting basis for a common politics of the working class. Harvey presents a call to action to improve economic conditions for all citizens that is compellingly well researched. I suggest you read this book and see where you stand; you may find yourself convinced of the need for a broad based oppositional movement to oppose the elite’s profligacy and economic mismanagement that is neoliberalism.

"A Brief History of Neoliberalism" by David Harvey is a concise and razor-sharp deconstruction of the neoliberal movement. Mr. Harvey convincingly demonstrates that neoliberalism is an ideology that has been wielded to enshrine elite privilege at the expense of people and the environment. Assiduously researched and cogently argued, Mr. Harvey offers a jargon-free and readable text that helps readers gain a greater understanding about the political economy of our neoliberal world and what this might hold for us in the future. Mr. Harvey explains that neoliberal propaganda has succeeded in fixating the public on a peculiar definition of 'freedom' that has served to conceal a project of upper class wealth accumulation. In practice, the neoliberal state assumes a protective role for capital while it sheds as much responsibility for the citizenry as possible. Mr. Harvey details how neoliberal theory is ignored whenever it comes time to bail out corporate interests from bad decision making while the safety net for the working class has been gradually eviscerated. The author effectively intersperses the text with graphs to illustrate how thirty years of neoliberalist policies has resulted in rising inequality, slower economic growth, higher incomes among the upper class, and other measures that serve to convincingly support and prove his thesis. Mr. Harvey's history of how neoliberalism has gained ascendancy mostly treads through familiar ground but also highlights some key events that are sometimes overlooked by others. For example, Mr. Harvey relates the well-known stories of how the Chilean coup in 1973 opened the door for Augusto Pinochet to implement the first national experiment in neoliberalism, followed by Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain in 1979 and Ronald Reagan in the U.S. in 1980. However, we also gain greater appreciation about the importance of the New York City bankruptcy in the 1970s. We learn how the city's financial crisis allowed for the imposition of neoliberal reforms in a manner that would prove to be a familiar template around the world: the rollback of labor rights, the privatization of public assets, cuts in public services, and increased policing, surveillance and political repression of a markedly polarized population. Mr. Harvey surveys neoliberalism around the world to discover connections and to analyze its effects. He finds that the U.S. economy has benefited immensely from its ability to extract tribute from other nations, including the U.S. financial community's probable engineering of crises in developing nations in order to scoop up devalued assets on the cheap. The author discusses how economic restructuring programs imposed on poor countries has benefited U.S. and other foreign investors while it has bolstered or created a small but powerful class of wealthy individuals in Mexico, South Korea, Sweden and elsewhere. In China, Mr. Harvey remarks about the ease with which neoliberalism has found a home in an authoritarian state where the political elite have amassed their fortunes by exploiting a defenseless working class. The author is particularly concerned about the symbiotic relationship that has developed between the U.S. and China and muses about the potentially catastrophic financial situation that the two countries' mounting debts might pose for each other and the world economy. In the final chapter, Mr. Harvey writes passionately about the need to continue building diverse democracy movements within the U.S. that are dedicated to social and economic justice. Although it is true that Mr. Harvey does not detail precisely what must be done, his thorough dissection of neoliberal ideology empowers us to effectively challenge those who hide behind false rhetorical devices in service to privilege. And for that, we should be grateful. I give this outstanding book the highest possible rating and strongly recommend it to all.

I'm going to write this as a negative review of sorts. Not because I think that this book was especially poor in any way but one, that being its' fundamental identity crisis. It seems that, at heart Mr. Harvey doesn't seem to know what he wants to get out of this book. On one hand, it reads every bit like the well-researched, thoughtful and impressivley succint book it is. On the other hand, it is also filled with a bunch of generic complaints referring to a an elite conspiracy to force the destructive power of neo-liberalism upon the world. His ranting about "restoring power to the elites" is very unbecoming to a work which I felt was generally excellent. It feels like he is partially tring to craete a factual history of neo-liberalism, and partially trying to write a radical manifesto against it. Neither of these are really achieved. Instead we get a well-written, if at times rediculous history of neo-liberalism. If you can look past his conspiracies I would reccomend this book highly. It's not quite scholarly, and it's not quite revolutionary, but it is an outstanding left-wing history of globalization and the issues that we face today.

Neoliberalism is the ruling ideology of Western Societies (David Harvey as an Economic Geologist finds it in many corners of the world). It springs from a small group, the Mont Pelerin Society (named after the Swiss spa where they first met) in 1947, with Friedrich von Hayek, Ludvig von Mises, and the economist Milton Friedman as recognized contributors. They felt the world was headed toward a centralized highly managed regulated existence threading Freedom and Individual Rights as they saw it. In America this was the Post-Depression, Post-War, FDR creation with Keynesian,* anti-trust and social overhead dimensions; all features they hoped to destroy. The amazing fact is that history was very kind to them with Margaret Thatcher in England and Ronald Reagan coming to power in the 1980’s and sharing their believes. Those believes had been sold by individuals like Lewis F. Powell Jr. who in 1971 issued a call to the US Chamber of Commerce, and other conservative organizations and think-tanks such as The Business Roundtable, The Heritage Foundation, The Cato Institution, Accuracy in Academia and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research to counter criticism of the free enterprise system. At the University of Chicago Milton Freedom was spreading the word. Powell was to be appointed to the Supreme Court by President Nixon. A formidable array of power and influence. Harvey details their impacts and views it as ‘Class Action’ a dangerous tack for an academic by now in 2017 when “1%ters” has entered the common vocabulary likely raises few eyebrows. This book was released in 2005 in the days of George W. Bush and therefore does not follow the Obama administration, nor interestingly that of Clinton,** many count both as moving Neoliberal policy in place as well; but the Republican party is the standard bearer and Trump’s appointments and policies would cause Harvey no problem. As the critics’ note A Brief History of Neoliberalism is hard to follow in places and this is likely because Harvey does not wish to leave any aspect of the doctrine’s impact undeveloped. At one point he issues predictions of its damaging likelihoods, and three years later in 2008-9 Financial Crisis his analysis is quite accurate. Skim if you wish but it is a pleasure to see how a call for ‘Freedom and Individual Rights’ can unravel the hard won accomplishments and protective devices for employer/employee, government/citizen, individual/self respect as the gig economy comes to replace all that was fair and equable before, and enhances Imperial conquest as well as Harvey so clearly describes.*** For a good humanitarian treatment on current impacts of Neoliberalism see Guy Standing, The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. 5 stars *Keynesian fiscal policy aided an active government controlling inflation and unemployment levels. This could be graphed with a negative relation between price levels (Demand Pull) and unemployment from empirical data – see the Phillips curve – in the seventies ‘stagflation’ occurred with inflation and high unemployment. Friedman used that change to argue Monetary not Fiscal policy was the answer, bankers over pencil-pushing bureaucrats, as conservatives argued, reducing the positive role of government. Explanations continue as to what conditions had changed but the shift was pro-neoliberalism in effect reducing the ‘detested’ active governmental role. **Clinton’s neoliberal package of (anti-regulatory, free-trade) economics, embracing Republican tough-on-crime tactics, and rejecting "Big Government."; opened the door to Wall Street and other corporate excesses (by supporting deregulation of the financial and media industries). When Clinton left office in 2001, the United States had the highest rate of incarceration in the world. The full consequences of neoliberalism became painfully apparent with the Wall Street Crash of 2008 and the resulting Great Recession. *** Harvey relies on others in his China section and his sources are weak and his conclusions affected unfortunately; but he seems to see that the fit is troublesome. The most recent treatment of the topic of neoliberalism appears in: The Corruption of Capitalism: Why rentiers thrive and work does not pay by Guy Standing. 2017

David Harvey is an outstanding scholar, from a left wing perspective, who has the ability to crystallise world events and economic trends in sharp, memorable observations. His analysis of neoliberalism as the default belief system of the late twentieth century is convincing and his delineation of its faults, including a wide divergence between the idealism of the theory and its deviations in practice, is also pithy and to the point. As usual, once left wing thinkers move to the solution the issue is less clear, although he admits this himself. He seems to suggest that just as Keynesianism was the underlying paradigm of the first half of the twentieth century, from which it was difficult to deviate without offending 'common sense', so neoliberalism is the prevailing orthodoxy of the last decades of the twentieth century. Hence, it may take some time, and the world to move in a so far unforseeable direction, before a new, perhaps kinder, orthodoxy, can be thought or felt. Nonetheless, full marks to David Harvey for another outstanding book. His book on Postmodernity is a classic and his other books are also readable and convincing. Well worth buying and reading.

This is a very rich book. The subject, neoliberalism, must be understood if we are to understand current politics. Harvey's other books--those I have in mind being THE NEW IMPERALIASM, LIMITS TO CAPITAL, THE CONDITION OF POSTMODERNITY--are equally illuminating. What I write here, I admit, does not constitute a review of the book, neither summarizing its contents or approach, nor offering any criticisms; it is merely an assurance that your study of this book (which I am on my second reading of after having read the first two of the books above-mentioned along with Naomi Klein's uncannily brilliant THE SHOCK DOCTRINE) will give you a good grounding in the matter he treats of: neoliberalism, "its origins, rise, and implications," and will give you a sharper and quicker sense of current national and world politics. Harvey possesses the three qualities of an academic writer that justify, almost demand, studying his work on a subject of this importance: he masters the materially relevant data (i.e., he is a genuine scholar), he thinks well, and he writes well.

Although I generally tend to agree with the critiques of neoliberalism, the author makes many dubious or inaccurate claims and seems to cherry pick cases that support whatever point he is trying to make, while ignoring other cases or trends that do not support it. While this book provides a good general overview of this history of neoliberalism, its overall accuracy on some details is suspect.

The traditional left, in its attempts to run for cover once the edifice of Marxism collapsed, found succour in many ideologies that seemed to explain power imbalance in economic and social relationships. Many of these "new ideas" such as Post-Structuralism and Foucaultian-based power theory, seem to offer a dope-laced understanding of the world and make very specific economic assertions about the world. The central theme of this book, that economic power is being reconstituted in upper classes to a degree not seen since the 1930s, is a worthy and interesting idea. In fact the raw data indicates that more and more wealth, in percentage terms, is being concentrated into fewer and fewer hands -- especially since the breakdown of the postwar concensus and the demise of the welfare state. This being an economic statement should not be all that hard to prove. How this happens and why, and if the benefit is unjust, or disabling to certain notions of economic justice, Harvey offers little in terms of empirical facts. Although David Harvey writes well, his evidence is a thin gruel of a single source study by those sympathetic to his cause, and also some sources far too generally cited to actually explain how and what is happening in economic terms. As such the house that Harvey builds is not one that I would like to live in. I found that I was constantly wanting him to prove his point, but could find no economic basis in his book to either explain this drain of wealth or to support his assertions of who and what institutions were making it possible. Instead there was only the strident and oft-repeated boot-strap ideologies each one trying to pick the other off the ground, but none being supported well enough to justify the explanation - in that sense it is similar to Marxism -- and endless series of conjecture with not attempt to look at alternative beliefs and certainly violating the principle of falsifiability. In addition, there is also a deep suspicion on my part of any theory that attempts to foist a single theory to explain the actions of leaders as diverse as Deng Xiao Ping, Maggie Thatcher, Pinochet, Reagan -- indeed Swedish Socialist governments reconstituting new free market "reforms" is also seen as a direct result of Neoliberalism!!! It raises a critical question of what exactly isn't Neoliberalism? Having said that, this book is a good read and does encapsulate the current accepted academic dogma of what Neoliberalism in fact describes. Harvey writes well, and undoubtedly the concentration of capital needs to be explained. It is however within the realm of economics that such assertions are proved. Harvey has a lot more work to do to prove his assertion.

Un classique sur l'histoire du néolibéralisme (reagan, thatcher, l'amérique du sud, la chine, etc...)... mais il faut savoir que l'ouvrage est à charge (il cite d'ailleurs souvent naomi Klein). Ici c'est avant tout la critique qui est faite et les éléments de justifications sont sélectionnées pour avancer la thèse de l'auteur. Il faut donc savoir ce que l'on lit. Il reste que l'ouvrage est un incontournable dans la littérature en langue anglaise.

Excellent price ,book in fine fettle

Ta bien chidoliro

Ótimo

Terrific book to truly understand the economic policy of neoliberalism. Going into history, and citing Polanyi’s previous works relating to it, Harvey dissects the ambitious thinkers behind the movement, which was designed by the wealthy to serve the wealthy!