...Neoliberalism Definitions An approach to economics and social studies in which control of economic factors is shifted from the public sector to the private sector. Drawing upon principles of neoclassical economics, neoliberalism suggests that governments reduce deficit spending, limit subsidies, reform tax law to broaden the tax base, remove fixed exchange rates, open up markets to trade by limiting protectionism, privatize state-run businesses, allow private property and back deregulation. The use of the term "liberal" in economics is different from its use in politics. Liberalism in economics refers to "freeing up" the economy by removing barriers and restrictions to what actors can do. Neoliberalism's policies seek to create a laissez-faire atmosphere for economic development. "Neo" means we are talking about a new kind of liberalism. Main points 1. THE RULE OF THE MARKET. Liberating "free" enterprise or private enterprise from any bonds imposed by the government (the state) no matter how much social damage this causes. Greater openness to international trade and investment, as in NAFTA. Reduce wages by de-unionizing workers and eliminating workers' rights that had been won over many years of struggle. No more price controls. All in all, total freedom of movement for capital, goods and services. To convince us this is good for us, they say "an unregulated market is the best way to increase economic growth, which will ultimately benefit everyone." It's like Reagan's...
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...Globalization and Neoliberalism The process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale. Process by which the experience of everyday life, marked by the diffusion of commodities and ideas, is becoming standardized around the world. Factors that have contributed to globalization include increasingly sophisticated communications and transportation technologies and services, mass migration and the movement of peoples, a level of economic activity that has outgrown national markets through industrial combinations and commercial groupings that cross national frontiers, and international agreements that reduce the cost of doing business in foreign countries. Globalization offers huge potential profits to companies and nations but has been complicated by widely differing expectations, standards of living, cultures and values, and legal systems as well as unexpected global cause-and-effect linkages. Globalization is not an inevitable process and there are risks and costs: -Inequality: Globalization has been linked to rising inequalities in income and wealth. Evidence for this is a rise in the Gini-coefficient and a growing rural–urban divide in countries such as China, India and Brazil. -Inflation: Strong demand for food and energy has caused a steep rise in commodity prices. Food price inflation (known as afflation) has placed millions of the world’s poorest people at great risk. -Macroeconomic instability:...
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...Over the last few decades, research has shown a clear connection between the ideals of neoliberalism and social inequality. According to A Brief History of Neoliberalism, neoliberalism is defined as a theory of political economic practices that proposes that human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong property rights, free markets, and free trade. Beginning in the 1970s and 1980s as political philosophy rooted in classical liberalism with a focus on free markets and economic growth, the definition of neoliberalism has changed quite a bit over the last few decades. The evolutionary dynamic of neoliberaliztion has been such as to force adaptations that have varied greatly from place to place as well as over time. Any attempt to piece together a picture of what a typical neoliberal state looks like today would prove to be a difficult task. The somewhat chaotic evolution and uneven geographical development of state institutions, powers, and functions over the last thirty years suggests that the neoliberal state may be an unstable contradictory political form. The effects of this economic philosophy are especially obvious in Latin America, where many nations faced debt crises directly related to neoliberalism. The overall result was an awkward mix of low growth and increasing income inequality. In Latin America, where the first wave of forced neoliberalization struck in...
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...Assessment 2: Major Essay What is neoliberalism and how is it connected to 'development'? Neoliberalism, quite simply, is defined by David Harvey as the: … theory of political economic practices that proposes that human well-being can be best advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterised by strong private property rights, free markets and free trade... (2007, pg 2) Through this approach, economic and social barriers and constraints are sought to be eliminated to prompt the market towards becoming self-sufficient. Therefore, it is very easy for neoliberalism to hinder the development of economies and society, as imbalances in wealth and living conditions are emphasised and expanded over time. In particular, these imbalances become quite prominent in developing countries, for example, Brazil, where they may begin to take importance over the conditions of the population. Despite this, we are still observing the existence of neoliberalism in the 21st century on an international scale as the globalisation era lingers and development continues to evolve. In the modern world, neoliberalism offers ‘the supporting ideology of globalisation’ and depends on market forces, free trade and laissez-faire government roles to become efficient. (Heron, T. 2008. Pg. 1;Kelleher, A and Klein, L. 2011. Pg. 95) It was in the late eighteenth century when Adam Smith originally formulated the idea that in an economy, priority...
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...The essence of neoliberalism | As the dominant discourse would have it, the economic world is a pure and perfect order, implacably unrolling the logic of its predictable consequences, and prompt to repress all violations by the sanctions that it inflicts, either automatically or - more unusually - through the intermediary of its armed extensions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the policies they impose: reducing labour costs, reducing public expenditures and making work more flexible. Is the dominant discourse right? What if, in reality, this economic order were no more than the implementation of a utopia - the utopia of neoliberalism - thus converted into a political problem? One that, with the aid of the economic theory that it proclaims, succeeds in conceiving of itself as the scientific description of reality?This tutelary theory is a pure mathematical fiction. From the start it has been founded on a formidable abstraction. For, in the name of a narrow and strict conception of rationality as individual rationality, it brackets the economic and social conditions of rational orientations and the economic and social structures that are the condition of their application.To give the measure of this omission, it is enough to think just of the educational system. Education is never taken account of as such at a time when it plays a determining role in the production of goods and services as in the production...
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...What impact has neoliberalism had on world politics? Neoliberalism is an economic philosophy that rose in prominence from the eighties following the elections of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Jones, Parker and Bos (2005: 100) summarise the essence of this view as “markets good, governments bad”. Neoliberalism argues that free trade is beneficial to all nations, that governments create inefficiency and waste, and that the distribution of goods should therefore be left to individuals and firms competing in the market to maximise their utility (WHO 2010). To ensure an efficient allocation of resources, neoliberalists argue for widespread liberalisation i.e. the reduction of rules and restrictions, and the privatisation of public enterprises. However, the reality of Neoliberalism has been very different to the theory. Regulation provides the framework within which markets work and enables the moderation of the externalities they produce, thus deregulation was in fact limited and was quickly followed by regulation (Levi-Faur 2005: 13). Because of this, Polanyi (in Peck, 2010: 330) writes: “the road to a free market was opened and kept open by an enormous increase in continuous, centrally organized and controlled interventionism”. In this essay, I look at the impacts of Neoliberalism on World Politics, focusing on two in particular. Firstly I explain that the policies of liberalisation and privatisation, albeit supported by regulation, have led to increasing inequality...
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...After gaining independence, Ghana’s economy had reached a state of crisis and therefore, certain International Financial Institutions (International Monetary Fund and World Bank) had intervened. The goal for Ghana was to pursue economic growth at all costs and seek to achieve through the increase of the Growth Domestic Product and the Growth National Product. Structural adjustment programs (SAP) (designed by the World Bank and IMF) had begun being implemented by the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) and National Democratic Congress (NDC). SAPs can be defined as “the process by which key institutions and policies are reconstructed with the intent on advancing economic growth”. This involves increasing economic dependency and diversifying economic resources. While looking at Peter Arthur’s opposing argument that the IFIs and their strategies were detrimental to Ghana’s economy - Kwadwo Kanadu-Agyemang and Darko Kwabena Opoku believe that these strategies and SAPs were beneficial to Ghana’s economy, only to a certain extent. This essay will aim to identify certain criticisms of Ghana undergoing the SAP as well as which sectors of the SAP were beneficial to Ghana. Furthermore, this essay will identify that the ‘imposition’ of the SAPs was indeed necessary and less destructive than its critics state. Colonial rule ended for Ghana in 1957 and they became politically independent and they were “the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to do so”. Ghana had ebeen the world’s...
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...Name: Gunel Aliyeva Group: 2 Title: Home essay Instructor: Tural Mammadov Question: How are the differences between these two types of capitalism affecting the current phase of globalization? Answer: Neoliberalism – “Liberalism" can refer to political, economic, or even religious ideas. "Neo" means that a new kind of liberalism. Neoliberalism is a set of economic policies which there is the role of state is minimal emphasis on individualism, it means that in the neoliberal countries the government don’t interference to the market of economy. But the government helps to the removal of all barriers to commerce, and the privatization of all available resources and services. On the other way these are the goal of neoliberal economic globalization. That’s why this capitalism affects globalization process effectively. Statism- another type of capitalism which is the concentration of economic controls and planning by a highly centralized government that often extends to government ownership of industry. It means that the government to regulate markets, control profits, direct economic investment. In contrast to neoliberalism, statist capitalism don’t allow development of globalization. This is very differences between neoliberalism and statism. Question: What are the implications of the stronger presence of statist capitalism for international trade, international business and economic development? Answer: According to the comparability, international trade is more restricted...
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...A Criticism of Neoliberal Policies as a Method of Development * Neoliberalism is a philosophical theory that uses market value as the primary method of evaluating all aspects of life. Thus, the market is seen as the template for all other activities within a society, even those that involve an ethical dimension. (Paul Sukys, 2009) Thesis Statement: The pro-market principles that neoliberalism encourages do have benefits that, if managed realistically, are means of development and sustainment for countries worldwide. * “The neoliberal doctrine emphasizes competition over cooperation and in doing so encourages each individual to pursue his or her own well being, thus effectively creating "companies of one" who will sell whatever they possess (talents, property, abilities, education, and so on) in order to accumulate "points," in whatever way those points may be defined within a given system.” (Jason Read, 2008) * “Neoliberalization has not been very effective in revitalizing global capital accumulation, but it has succeeded remarkably well in restoring, or in some instances (as in Russia and China) creating, the power of an economic elite...” (David Harvey, 2007) * Neoliberalism is an ideology, method of governance, and a set of policies which originated out of classical liberalism and as a backlash to Keynesianism during the early 1980’s (Steger and Roy 2010:10-11) * Neoliberal intellectuals insisted that the ‘free market’ was a superior mechanism for...
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...which has its weaknesses and strengths and cannot be judged either way. The term Neoliberalism can be defined as a ‘modernised or revised form of liberalism, one based on belief in free market capitalism and the rights of the individual. This is a definition given by the Oxford English Dictionary 1989. In the 1970s Neoliberalism enjoyed increasing popularity and an aspect of the theory we should look at its influence on the Washington Consensus which was an extensive list of economic policies written by John Williamson in 1989. This was a package of standards created to aid countries in economic crisis. Neoliberalism reduces the influence of state and trade unions on markets and reduces the public sector workforce. It also increases in the privatisation of formerly public owned institutions, decreases state interference and opens up markets of an economy to foreign companies. A country which takes on Neoliberal approaches to its economy, in theory should favour strong individual private property rights, rule of law and the institution of freely functioning markets and free trade (Harvey, 2005). There is a criticism to Neoliberalism states as it is described and said to be designed to reduce poverty and other inequalities however it is more tailored to meet the needs of capitalism and a global scale (Kothari, 2002). I believe a term or a section we should look at when looking at Neoliberalism is ‘economic liberalism’ which is the belief in that the state...
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...ECONOMICS ASSIGNMENT Introduction This assignment is focused on describing neoliberal globalization and identifying that how it has changed the relationship between business and governments. The perspective that what needs to be done in order to ought to the current situation is also discussed and analyzed in this assignment. The suggestions to the government are also provided regarding neoliberalism in this assignment. Neoliberal Globalization Neo-liberalism refers to economic liberalism which has become very important in the international economy (Kotz and David, 1998). Neoliberal globalization is defined as setting up the market free and private enterprises are free from any bonds or regulations imposed by the government of the state (Ong, 2006). Neoliberal globalization mainly promotes the concept of free market economy. The rules of neo-liberal globalization include cutting the public expenditure and reducing the social safety net. It also involves reducing the government regulations or everything that could result in reduction in the overall business profitability of the private enterprises (Harvey, 2005). The state enterprises are sold to the private investors and concepts of ‘public good’ and ‘community’ are eliminated and the individual responsibility is increased. There is a huge criticism that this system usually involves pressing the poorest people within the society which could result in social distress within the society. At the global level, the neoliberal...
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...as a threat against cultural diversity, as well as allow large corporations and rich governments to exploit human and natural resources in less developed countries. There has been much discussion and debate over how to approach globalization in a way that maximizes opportunities and minimizes threats, but of course it is not always clear which approach will do this. Two approaches in particular, which have been come to known as cosmopolitanism and neoliberalism, have developed and made lasting impacts on ideologies as well as policies. There are avid supporters as well as opponents of both, but in this paper, rather than compare the pros and cons of the two and argue for which one is superior, I would like to discuss if these approaches oppose each other or if in fact they compliment each other as an approach to globalization. As well, I will discuss the issue of social responsibility of multinational corporations in a globalized environment. Cosmopolitanism In order to evaluate the relationship of cosmopolitanism and neoliberalism as approaches to globalization, it is important to first have a clear understanding of the basic tenants and goals of both of these ideologies. At the heart of cosmopolitanism is the idea that, “Many matters that require governance have moved from a national to an international form, requiring governance and democracy to be organized at this level. In particular, such governance should be…democratically and through the input of interests and actors...
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...It is understood that the general characteristic of neoliberalism is to emphasize and expand the market by increasing transactions and conducting trades to help reinforce the economic power of the latter. Every action is a competitive, market transaction that can occur in a short time or at a fast rate. Economic policies that are promoted by governmental organizations like IMF and structural adjustment programs adequately re-distribute resources from the poor to the rich, which may create poverty and inequality. However, the repayment of debt from these governmental organizations has resulted in deproletarianization. The neoliberal economic model is deemed unsustainable because not all countries have access to the same resources and benefits. In addition, neoliberalism does not fully account for gender and racial divisions of labor that is an obvious feature in the global economy. For example, many people who are already living in poor countries who need to obtain access and control over resources they need to survive such as, food, water, shelter, and clothing are limited and declining. This issue of inequality is focused on women because they are often responsible for providing food and other necessities for their families. In order to overcome inequality and reach a balance of accessing resources and government benefits within countries and people, re-distribution should be overturned. Obtaining access to resources and a healthy environment is a product of human rights and...
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...Since the end of the second world war, many East Asian economies have seen a “miraculous” growth. And with so many other nations still in poverty, economists and leaders are turning their eyes towards the “East Asian tigers” to see if they can replicate their results. When looking at the facts it is obvious that the the circumstances facing the East Asian nations were quite different than the ones that nations face today. But outside of these differences a loose model of the East Asian miracle can be utilized in Third World nations today and, considering the high success rate of so many of the East Asian economies, would most likely see positive results. The secret to success of East Asian economies is the hand that the government has had in industrial affairs. Starting in the 1950s nations like china began taking steps towards centralized government through reform. One example of this would be the Chinese land reform of the 50s under the new Mao Zedong's communist regime (Blecher, 2010:p.27). This land reform took away the oligarchic control of the landlords, changing the feudalistic policy of landlordism over to a more capitalistic form of socialism in which the government has the control. This is clearly a very vital part of the industrialization process as many nations that have failed with the agrarian reform continue to find themselves struggling to get out of poverty. A modern example of this would be Brazil, where the rural landlords have stalled any sort of reform that...
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...Expanding on various sociological analyses proposed by Bourdieu and Foucault among others, Loic Wacquant puts forth some insightful arguments in “Crafting the Neoliberal State.” He views the resurgence of Neoliberalism in the 1970’s as a rejection (decline) of the “nanny state,” a Fordist-Keynesian economic model popular after WWII. Moreover, this new direction in free-market capitalism by the US political elite acts as a template for other western developed nations. Typical policies of the Reagan/Thatcher era characterized by downsizing, tax cuts for business, deregulation, and outsourcing, created structural societal change reinforcing a polarized class structure. A “centaur state, liberal at the top and paternalistic at the bottom,”(Wacquant,...
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