Neoliberalism : a Critical Reader

277 Pages·2005·1.11 MB·English

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NEOLIBERALISM
A Critical Reader
Edited by
Alfredo Saad-Filho and Deborah Johnston
LONDON ●ANN ARBOR,MI
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First published 2005 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road,London N6 5AA
and 839 Greene Street,Ann Arbor,MI 48106
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright ©Alfredo Saad-Filho and Deborah Johnston 2005
The right of the individual contributors to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 7453 2299 9 hardback
ISBN 0 7453 2298 0 paperback
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by
Chase Publishing Services,Fortescue,Sidmouth,EX10 9QG,England
Typeset from disk by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd,India
Printed and bound in the European Union by
Antony Rowe Ltd,Chippenham and Eastbourne,England
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For John Weeks
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Contents
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
Alfredo Saad-Filho and Deborah Johnston
PART I:THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES 7
1. The Neoliberal (Counter-)Revolution 9
Gérard Duménil and Dominique Lévy
2. From Keynesianism to Neoliberalism:Shifting Paradigms
in Economics 20
Thomas I. Palley
3. Mainstream Economics in the Neoliberal Era 30
Costas Lapavitsas
4. The Economic Mythology of Neoliberalism 41
Anwar Shaikh
5. The Neoliberal Theory of Society 50
Simon Clarke
6. Neoliberalism and Politics,and the Politics of Neoliberalism 60
Ronaldo Munck
7. Neoliberalism,Globalisation and International Relations 70
Alejandro Colás
PART II:SURVEYING THE LANDSCAPE 81
8. Neoliberalism and Primitive Accumulation in Less Developed
Countries 83
Terence J. Byres
9. Neoliberal Globalisation:Imperialism without Empires? 91
Hugo Radice
10. Neoliberalism in International Trade:Sound Economics
or a Question of Faith? 99
Sonali Deranyiagala
11. ‘A Haven of Familiar Monetary Practice’:The Neoliberal
Dream in International Money and Finance 106
Jan Toporowski
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viii CONTENTS
12. From Washington to Post-Washington Consensus:Neoliberal
Agendas for Economic Development 113
Alfredo Saad-Filho
13. Foreign Aid,Neoliberalism and US Imperialism 120
Henry Veltmeyer and James Petras
14. Sticks and Carrots for Farmers in Developing Countries:Agrarian
Neoliberalism in Theory and Practice 127
Carlos Oya
15. Poverty and Distribution:Back on the Neoliberal Agenda? 135
Deborah Johnston
16. The Welfare State and Neoliberalism 142
Susanne MacGregor
17. Neoliberalism,the New Right and Sexual Politics 149
Lesley Hoggart
18. Neoliberal Agendas for Higher Education 156
Les Levidow
19. Neoliberalism and Civil Society:Project and Possibilities 163
Subir Sinha
20. Neoliberalism and Democracy:Market Power versus
Democratic Power 170
Arthur MacEwan
21. Neoliberalism and the Third Way 177
Philip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer
PART III:NEOLIBERAL EXPERIENCES 185
22. The Birth of Neoliberalism in the United States:A
Reorganisation of Capitalism 187
Al Campbell
23. The Neoliberal Experience of the United Kingdom 199
Philip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer
24. European Integration as a Vehicle of Neoliberal Hegemony 208
John Milios
25. Neoliberalism:The Eastern European Frontier 215
Jan Toporowski
26. The Political Economy of Neoliberalism in Latin America 222
Alfredo Saad-Filho
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CONTENTS ix
27. Neoliberalism in Sub-Saharan Africa:From Structural
Adjustment to NEPAD 230
Patrick Bond
28. Neoliberalism and South Asia:The Case of a Narrowing Discourse 237
Matthew McCartney
29. Assessing Neoliberalism in Japan 244
Makoto Itoh
30. Neoliberal Restructuring of Capital Relations in East and
South-East Asia 251
Dae-oup Chang
Contributors 259
Index 265
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Elizabeth Wilson, who asked the question that inspired this
book. Special thanks go to Anne Beech of Pluto Press and Costas Lapavitsas for
all their support and encouragement in this project.
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Introduction1
Alfredo Saad-Filho and Deborah Johnston
We live in the age of neoliberalism. It strongly influences the lives of billions of
people in every continent in such diverse areas as economics,politics,international
relations, ideology, culture and so on. In less than one generation, neoliberalism
has become so widespread and influential,and so deeply intermingled with criti-
cally important aspects of life,that it can be difficult to assess its nature and his-
torical importance. Yet such an assessment is essential for both intellectual and
political reasons.
This reader includes 30 chapters critically reviewing neoliberalism from widely
different angles and outlining a research agenda for concerned activists,students
and social scientists. These essays are divided into three groups, including theo-
retical, applied and historical chapters. The essays included in this reader share
several important features. First,they examine the origins,nature and implications
of neoliberalism from the perspective of radical political economy. Second,
although they come from distinct traditions,including the Marxian,post-Keynesian
and Kaleckian schools of thought, the essays are closely related to one another
both in content and approach. These commonalities illustrate the vitality of con-
temporary political economy, the extent and depth of the dialogue taking place
between its schools of thought, and the potential for cross-fertilisation between
them. Third, these essays offer a radical critique of neoliberalism, that is, a cri-
tique going to the root of the matter. They show that neoliberalism is part of a
hegemonic project concentrating power and wealth in elite groups around the
world, benefiting especially the financial interests within each country, and US
capital internationally. Therefore, globalisation and imperialism cannot be
analysed separately from neoliberalism. These claims are explained briefly below.
APPROACHES TO NEOLIBERALISM
It is impossible to define neoliberalism purely theoretically, for several reasons.
First, methodologically, although neoliberal experiences share important com-
monalities (explained in what follows),neoliberalism is not a mode of production.
Consequently, these experiences do not necessarily include a clearly defined set
of invariant features,as may be expected in studies of ‘feudalism’or ‘capitalism’,
for example. Neoliberalism straddles a wide range of social,political and economic
phenomena at different levels of complexity. Some of these are highly abstract,for
example the growing power of finance or the debasement of democracy, while
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