Neoliberalism

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"What protection teaches us, is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war."

Neoliberalism is a broad-term ideology that is considered to be economically centrist to right-wing (depending on how much they support/oppose government interventionism, spending and welfare), inspired by monetarist/Friedmanite policies, culturally variable, but nowadays usually left-leaning, and civically moderate. it also commonly supports atlanticist foreign policy and economic globalization. although there is general disagreement on what exactly the term means on both the left and the right.

On the right, the term Neoliberalism is occasionally thrown around for Managerial Capitalism, which is an economic phenomenon that originates from the end of World War Two. Managerialism differentiates itself from traditional Capitalism, while the latter is oriented on the economic power generally being held by the owners within society, managerialism is seen as diluting ownership within society to a point where owners can no longer exert power over businesses and rather this power being moved towards a professional manager class. Neoliberalism in this sense is seen as being pro-government involvement in the economy.

It's also used by some Libertarians as a defense when they're called neoliberals, by the meaning the ideology of Alexander Rüstow, Ordo-Liberalism, which he also called Neoliberalism, as an in-between ideology between the kind of English Laissez-Faire Classical Liberalism of Adam Smith and Socialism.

The term is also sometimes used by Right-Libertarians to call Neoliberalism simply the current status-quo but characterizing it and its model as a Pro-Keynesian School. Neoliberalism is also accused of being a corporate ideology that favors big businesses over small ones because of regulations and taxes that hit small businesses harder than big ones.

On the Left, the term Neoliberalism is used for the doctrine that was theorised by Hayek, Friedman, Mises et al. and popularized by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan applied at the time, harkening back to Classical Liberal doctrine. Neoliberalism in this sense is rather pro-competition, favouring lenient tax policies and low regulation, except in the area of regulation of trade unions. It would be erroneous to characterize this description as "anti-government involvement", as those who use this definition acknowledge that Neoliberal governments frequently involve themselves in the economy if it's to further the interests of market competition, such as bailing out "too big to fail" banks.

Although few politicians use the term neoliberal to describe themselves, due to its highly negative connotation, some online communities have recently been reclaiming the label in a more positive light. Neoliberalism in this sense is a big tent group, ranging from Third Way-ers to orthodox Friedmanites, with the common goal of advocating for evidence-based policy, and supporting the use of markets to solve social problems. Several think tanks, such as Third Way, the Niskanen Center, and the Progressive Policy Institute, as well as many prominent Substack bloggers, are embracing this line of thought.

To many, however, neoliberalism just means anything they hate, and the more they hate it, the more neoliberal it is.

History

Amidst the Great Depression, many liberals with different tendencies gathered together in Colloque Walter Lippmann. There were two distinct camps at play, the classical liberal group and the social-liberal group much more open to Keynesian policies. Although the participants couldn't agree on a comprehensive philosophy, they all agree on the necessity of new liberalism (aka neoliberalism) to combat socialism, collectivism, and laissez-faire.

Despite being largely ineffective, it served as a precursor to a much more significant Mont Pelerin Society. During the post-war Neo-Keynesian consensus, their ideas weren't very popular, being known only in think tanks and universities. It wasn't until the stagflation in the 1970s that the sustained effort by an aforementioned group of economists caused neoliberal thought to be widespread globally.

Chile

Main article: Pinochetism

Chile was among the earliest nations to implement neoliberal reform. Marxist economic geographer David Harvey has described the substantial neoliberal reforms in Chile beginning in the 1970s as "the first experiment with neoliberal state formation", which would provide "helpful evidence to support the subsequent turn to neoliberalism in both Britain...and the United States." Similarly, Vincent Bevins says that Chile under Augusto Pinochet "became the world's first test case for neoliberal economics

The turn to neoliberal policies in Chile originated with the Chicago Boys, a select group of Chilean students who, beginning in 1955, were invited to the University of Chicago to pursue postgraduate studies in economics. They studied directly under Milton Friedman and his disciple, Arnold Harberger, and were exposed to Friedrich Hayek. Upon their return to Chile, their neoliberal policy proposals—which centered on widespread deregulation, privatization, reductions to government spending to counter high inflation, and other free-market policies—would remain largely on the fringes of Chilean economic and political thought for a number of years, as the presidency of Salvador Allende (1970–1973) brought about a socialist reorientation of the economy.

During the Allende presidency, Chile experienced a severe economic crisis, in which Chile's GDP fell by 14.3%, its unemployment rate rose to 23.7%, and inflation peaked near 150%. Following an extended period of social unrest and political tension, as well as diplomatic, economic, and covert pressure from the United States, the Chilean armed forces and national police overthrew the Allende government in a coup d'état. They established a repressive military junta, known for its suppression of opposition, and appointed army chief Augusto Pinochet Supreme Head of the nation. His rule was later given legal legitimacy through a controversial 1980 plebiscite, which approved a new constitution drafted by a government-appointed commission that ensured Pinochet would remain as President for a further eight years—with increased powers—after which he would face a re-election referendum.

The Chicago Boys were given significant political influence within the military dictatorship, and they implemented sweeping economic reform. In contrast to the extensive nationalization and centrally planned economic programs supported by Allende, the Chicago Boys implemented rapid and extensive privatization of state enterprises, deregulation, and significant reductions in trade barriers during the latter half of the 1970s. In 1978, policies that would further reduce the role of the state and infuse competition and individualism into areas such as labor relations, pensions, health and education were introduced. Additionally, the central bank raised interest rates from 49.9% to 178% to counter high inflation.

Pamphlet calling for a protest of economic policy in 1983 following the economic crisis

These policies amounted to a shock therapy, which rapidly transformed Chile from an economy with a protected market and strong government intervention into a liberalized, world-integrated economy, where market forces were left free to guide most of the economy's decisions. Inflation was tempered, falling from over 600% in 1974, to below 50% by 1979, to below 10% right before the economic crisis of 1982. GDP growth spiked (see chart) to 10%. However, inequality widened as wages and benefits to the working class were reduced.

In 1982, Chile again experienced a severe economic recession. The cause of this is contested, however most scholars believe the Latin American debt crisis—which swept nearly all of Latin America into financial crisis—was a primary cause. Some scholars argue the neoliberal policies of the Chicago boys heightened the crisis (for instance, percent GDP decrease was higher than in any other Latin American country) or even caused it; for instance, some scholars criticize the high interest rates of the period which—while stabilizing inflation—hampered investment and contributed to widespread bankruptcy in the banking industry. Other scholars fault governmental departures from the neoliberal agenda; for instance, the government pegged the Chilean peso to the US dollar, against the wishes of the Chicago Boys, which economists believe led to an overvalued peso.

Ireland

WIP

United Kingdom

Main Article: Conservative Liberalism

During her tenure as Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher oversaw a number of neoliberal reforms, including tax reduction, exchange rate reform, deregulation, and privatisation. These reforms were continued and supported by her successor John Major. Although opposed by the Labour Party, the reforms were, according to some scholars, largely left unaltered when Labour returned to power in 1997.

"A shift from Keynesian ideas toward neoliberalism influenced the fiscal policy strategies of the New Democrats and New Labour in both the White House and Whitehall (...) Reagan, Thatcher, Clinton, and Blair all adopted broadly similar neoliberal beliefs."

Economists Denzau and Roy

The Adam Smith Institute, a United Kingdom-based free-market think tank and lobbying group formed in 1977, which was a major driver of the aforementioned neoliberal reforms, officially changed it's Libertarian label to a neoliberal one in October 2016.

United States

While a number of recent histories of neoliberalism in the United States have traced its origins back to the urban renewal policies of the 1950s, Marxist economic geographer David Harvey argues the rise of neoliberal policies in the United States occurred during the 1970s energy crisis, and traces the origin of its political rise to Lewis Powell's 1971 confidential memorandum to the Chamber of Commerce in particular. A call to arms to the business community to counter criticism of the free enterprise system, it was a significant factor in the rise of Conservative and Libertarian organizations and think-tanks which advocated for neoliberal policies, such as the Business Roundtable, The Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Accuracy in Academia and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. For Powell, universities were becoming an ideological battleground, and he recommended the establishment of an intellectual infrastructure to serve as a counterweight to the increasingly popular ideas of Ralph Nader and other opponents of big business. The original neoliberals on the left included, among others, Michael Kinsley, Charles Peters, James Fallows, Nicholas Lemann, Bill Bradley, Bruce Babbitt, Gary Hart, and Paul Tsongas. Sometimes called “Atari Democrats,” these were the men — and they were almost all men — who helped to remake liberalism into neoliberalism, culminating in the election of Bill Clinton in 1992. These new liberals would recoil in horror at the policies and programs of mid-century liberals like Walter Reuther or John Kenneth Galbraith or even Arthur Schlesinger.

Early roots of neoliberalism were laid in the 1970s during the Carter administration, with deregulation of the trucking, banking and airline industries, as well as the appointment of Paul Volcker to chairman of the Federal Reserve. This trend continued into the 1980s under the Reagan administration, which included tax cuts, increased defense spending, financial deregulation and trade deficit expansion. Likewise, concepts of supply-side economics, discussed by the Democrats in the 1970s, culminated in the 1980 Joint Economic Committee report "Plugging in the Supply Side". This was picked up and advanced by the Reagan administration, with Congress following Reagan's basic proposal and cutting federal income taxes across the board by 25% in 1981.

During the 1990s, the Clinton administration also embraced neoliberalism by supporting the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), continuing the deregulation of the financial sector through passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act and the repeal of the Glass–Steagall Act and implementing cuts to the welfare state through passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. The neoliberalism of the Clinton administration differs from that of Reagan as the Clinton administration purged neoliberalism of conservative positions on family values, opposition to multiculturalism, and neglect of ecological issues. Writing in New York, journalist Jonathan Chait disputed accusations that the Democratic Party had been hijacked by neoliberals, saying that its policies have largely stayed the same since the New Deal. Instead, Chait suggested these accusations arose from arguments that presented a false dichotomy between free-market economics and socialism, ignoring mixed economies. American feminist philosopher Nancy Fraser says the modern Democratic Party has embraced a "progressive neoliberalism," which she describes as a "progressive-neoliberal alliance of financialization plus emancipation". Historian Walter Scheidel says that both parties shifted to promote free-market capitalism in the 1970s, with the Democratic Party being "instrumental in implementing financial deregulation in the 1990s". Historians Andrew Diamond and Thomas Sugrue argue that neoliberalism became a "'dominant rationality' precisely because it could not be confined to a single partisan identity." Economic and political inequalities in schools, universities, and libraries and an undermining of democratic and civil society institutions influenced by neoliberalism has been explored by Buschman.

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter Jr. is an American Democrat who served as the 39th president of the US from 1977 to 1981. Jimmy Carter began his political career as a Georgia state senator from 1963 to 1967 and became the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975 through a campaign that appealed to racist and ultraconservative voters. However, once becoming the governor of his home state he changed his stance and began to and began to speak against Georgia's racist politics shocking many of his pro-segregationist voters who previously supported him.

Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as the 39th President of the US on January 20, 1977, and one of his first acts was the fulfillment of a campaign promise by issuing an executive order declaring unconditional amnesty for Vietnam War-era draft evaders, Proclamation 4483. One of his main challenges as president was that of economic crisis, recession, and inflation. Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act into law on October 24, 1978, with the purpose of removing government control over fares, routes, and market entry (of new airlines) from commercial aviation. In 1979, Carter deregulated the American beer industry by making it legal to sell malt, hops, and yeast to American home brewers for the first time since the prohibition.

During his presidency, Jimmy Carter attempted to reorient U.S. foreign policy towards a new emphasis on human rights, democratic values, nuclear non-proliferation, and global poverty. He ended U.S. support for the Somoza regime in Nicaragua and cut back or terminated military aid to Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Ernesto Geisel of Brazil, and Jorge Rafael Videla of Argentina, ordered a withdrawal of troops from Park Chung-hee's South Korea, all of whom he criticized for human rights violations. He negotiated the Torrijos–Carter Treaties, which provided for the return of the Panama Canal to Panama in 1999, and in an effort to end the Arab–Israeli conflict, helped arrange the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. Carter attempted to improve relations with Cuba upon taking office, to no avail due to Cold War tensions. However, through The Refugee Act of the 1980 and Mariel boatlift, the Carter Administration managed to provide refuge for 125,000 Cubans who fled from Castro's regime.

In 1979, the Carter Administration extended formal diplomatic recognition to the People's Republic of China now under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, for the first time, which led to a boom in trade between the two countries and even began a military partnership motivated by shared opposition to Soviet and Vietnamese influence in South and South East Asia. Carter ended the policy of detente with the Soviet Union and began a period of military build-up, started a grain embargo, and initiated Operation Cyclone a decade-long expensive CIA program that provided aid to mujahideen rebels in Afghanistan, in coordination with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, Israel, among other countries.

The end of Carter's presidency was marked by the Iran hostage crisis, which began in 1979 during the Islamic Revolution when a group of Iranians in support of Ruhollah Khomeini stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans captive. While Carter vowed to secure the release of the hostages he refused the Iranians' demand for the return of the former leader of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi who lived in exile in the US. In an attempt to rescue the hostages, Carter launched Operation Eagle Claw in April 1980 which ended in disaster and the death of eight US soldiers and badly damaged Carter's reputation as a whole. US-Iran negotiations continued until an agreement was reached in January 1981. In return for releasing the 52 captives, Iran accepted over $7 billion in monetary compensation and the unfreezing of Iranian assets in the US.

Jimmy Carter continues to enjoy an active political life after his presidency ended in 1981. In 1982, he founded the Carter Center, a non-governmental and non-profit organization with the purpose of advancing human rights and alleviating human suffering, in more than 80 countries. Among these efforts has been the contribution of the Carter Center working alongside the WHO to the near-eradication of Guinea worm disease.

George Soros

George Soros is a Hungarian-born American businessman and philanthropist and perhaps most notably a subject of (often Anti-Semitic) conspiracy theories from people on both the left and right.

The future billionaire was born in 1930 in Budapest, Hungary to a non-observant Jewish family, In 1936, Soros's family changed their name from the German-Jewish "Schwartz" to "Soros", as protective camouflage in increasingly antisemitic Hungary under Miklos Horthy's dictatorial regime. The Soros family survived Nazi Germany's occupation of Hungary and World War II by purchasing documents to say that they were Christians. In 1947, 17-year-old George Soros moved to England.

Soros began his business career by taking various jobs at merchant banks in the UK and then the US, before starting his first hedge fund, Double Eagle, in 1969. Profits from his first fund furnished the seed money to start Soros Fund Management, his second hedge fund, in 1970. Double Eagle was renamed Quantum Fund which by the time of its funding had $12 million in assets under management. As of 2011 Quantum Fund had $25 billion, the majority of Soros's overall net worth. Soros is known as "The Man Who Broke the Bank of England" because of his short sale of US$10 billion worth of pounds sterling, which made him a profit of $1 billion during the 1992 Black Wednesday UK currency crisis.

The Hungarian-American billionaire is notorious for Open Society Foundations (OSF) a grantmaking network founded and chaired by George Soros, himself. OSF is active in over 30 countries and financially supports civil society groups around the world, with a stated aim of advancing justice, education, public health and independent media. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s during the fall of communism, OSF played an important role helping various Eastern European countries transition from communist dictatorship to free-market capitalism and liberal democracy. OSF lucrative activities across the world have gotten Soros into several feuds with various dictators and strongmen such Mahathir Mohamad in Malaysia, Viktor Orban in Hungary, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, Xi Jinping in China, Min Aung Hlaing in Myanmar, among countless other’s who accuse him of fomenting regime change on behalf of “Globalist Elites.”

International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund is a financial agency of the United nations that is headquartered in Washington, D.C. Its stated mission is "working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world".

Bilderberg Group

The Bilderberg meeting more commonly referred to as the Bilderberg Group is an annual off-the-record conference established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America to prevent another world war. Participants include political leaders, experts, and captains of industry, finance, and academia, numbering between 120 and 150 that come together every year with the main goal of bolstering a consensus around free market Western capitalism and its interests around the globe.

Peru

Fujirmorism arose in 1989 with the creation of the political party "Cambio 90", created by the Peruvian-Japanese politician Alberto Fujimori. At that time, Peru was suffering an era of serious terrorism by far-left groups, being the main Shining Path, a group which followed an ideology called "Gonzalo Thought", which was an extremely radical fusion of Marxism, Leninism and Maoism.

It is in this climate of terror that Fujimorism, of a neoliberal and anti-communist nature, easily wins the 1990 general elections against his rival, the democratic liberal Mario Vargas Llosa, making Fujimori president of Peru.

During his rule, Fujimorism practically destroyed the terrorist groups using unconventional means (repression, assassinations, death squads), and to remain in power, he decided to carry out a self-coup in 1992, turning Peru into a dictatorship.

By 2000, and due to unpopularity, accusations of corruption, and Fujimori health problems, Fujimorism was forced to leave power.

After this, Fujimorism became a political opposition force, and despite the fact that in the early 2000s it was not doing very well in electoral results, over time it took more and more power, until it almost dominated half of the Peruvian congress, although since then its results have dropped a bit.

Currently its main party is Popular Force, led by Keiko Fujimori (daughter of Alberto Fujimori), and continues to be one of the most important ideologies in Peru.

Argentina

WIP

Germany

WIP

Sweden

  • Carl Bildt is a Swedish politician and diplomat of the Moderate Party who was Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994 and Minister for Foreign Affairs during the Premiership of Fredrik Reinfeldt from 2006 to 2014. In 1991 Bildt became the first right-wing Prime Minister of Sweden in 61 years, leading a four-party coalition government that sought to expand upon the market liberal reforms that were introduced by the previous Prime Minister Ingvar Karlsson. The policies of Bildt's government aimed at giving Sweden a "new start" in the middle of a rapidly mounting economic crisis caused by a speculation bubble in housing, focusing on privatizing and de-regulating the economy in order to improve the conditions for big businesses.

The most notable change was a major education reform in 1992 that allowed privately run primary schools and gymnasiums, called independent schools (friskolor) to receive public funding for each student at a level similar to what public schools receive. The number of independent schools has exceeded over a thousand since the 1990s. The independent school system has in recent times been harshly criticized mainly by the left-leaning parties for being kleptocratic with public funds ending up in the pockets of Private Shareholders who own the schools instead of being spent on improving the quality of education and for causing segregation in underfunded public schools which have become places of recruitment for criminal gangs. However, Bildt and other right-wing politicians have dismissed these claims and argues that the independent school system gives the students freedom to choose where and what they want to study after primary school and that it encourages them to embrace their individual talents.

Carl Bildt is mostly known for his stances on foreign policy. He has constantly been a champion of European Integration, seeing the nation-state as an outdated concept and during his premiership negotiated Sweden's membership in the European Union. Like most Swedish right-wing politicians he's a strong supporter of NATO and has long called for Sweden to join the alliance. Yet he has come under scrutiny for his time as a mediator during the Yugoslav Wars when he opposed NATO intervention against the Bosnian Serb forces during the ongoing genocide against Bosnian Muslims, due to alleged business ties in the region.

In 2000, Bildt joined Lundin Energy's board of directors, a company with oil interests in Ethiopia and Sudan. His 7 years at Lundin Energy made him a multimillionaire and has been accused of profiting from and being complicit in the crimes against humanity committed by Omar al-Bashir's dictatorship in Sudan. Bildt supported the Iraq War and is known to have lobbied personally for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

While formerly highly regarded by fellow Moderate Party members for moving Sweden to the economic right and representing the country in the international area, Bildt's reputation within his own party has declined significantly in recent times. This is due to his anti-nationalist and anti-populist views and his opposition to the Moderate Party's recent collaboration with the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats. Bildt may be the sole member of his party who still supports a two-state solution to the Israel/ Palestine Conflict as most of the Moderate Party fully supports Israel's annexation of remaining Palestinian territories and his outspoken criticism of Israel has led to multiple accusations of anti-semitism. Bildt, unlike most Swedish politicians also supports maintaining diplomatic ties with Iran and China despite Sweden's less than stellar relations with the respective countries.

Poland

WIP

Russia

Main article: Boris Yeltsin

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise to power of President Boris Yeltsin, neoliberal economic reforms were initiated in Russia under his leadership by market economists such as Yegor Gaidar, Anatoly Chubais, Yevgeny Yasin, Boris Nemtsov and others. These reforms, unlike the perestroika reforms, were more radical in nature and included minimization of state regulation of the economy, privatization of state-owned enterprises, price liberalization, economic restructuring and monetary stabilization. The main goals of these reforms were the transition to a market economy and the elimination of the centrally planned economy that existed during the Soviet Union. However, because of centralized planning, many of the reforms led to hyperinflation, economic crisis, increased poverty, social strife, the 1998 default, and other negative consequences, but some aspects of these reforms had a positive impact on the further development of the Russian economy.

After Yeltsin's resignation and with Vladimir Putin coming to power, measures were introduced to stabilize the economy, reduce inflation and cut the budget deficit. Having strengthened the country's economic base and ensured stability, Putin supported the neoliberal reforms introduced by Yeltsin and Gaidar until he changed his economic views in 2012-2014, when he began to impose State Capitalism.

Yegor Gaidar

  • Yegor Gaidar is a Russian economist and politician. He held various senior positions in the Russian government under the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, including First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy. Gaidar actively pursued economic reforms, including privatization and stabilization of the Russian economy.

Anatoly Chubais

  • Anatoly Chubais was a Soviet and Russian politician and economist. One of the ideologists and leaders of market reforms in Russia in the 1990s and the reform of the energy system. Former Chairman of the Board of the former RAO UES of Russia and former head of Rusnano.

Boris Nemtsov

  • Boris Nemtsov is a Russian politician, statesman, activist, author of the exposing reports "Putin. Results. 10 years" about the scale of corruption in Russia and the very essence of Putin's regime in general, and an active critic of Vladimir Putin's political regime.

In the 1990s, Nemtsov was a member of the highest echelons of Russian power and, until the end of August 1998, was Boris Yeltsin's presumed successor. But in the 2000s he was marginalized by Putin and lost almost all of his former support and influence. He was active in opposition activities and authored several reports exposing the essence of Putin's regime. He was assassinated on the orders of the authorities on February 27, 2015.

Mikhail Kasyanov

  • Mikhail Kasyanov is a Russian statesman and socio-political figure who served as prime minister of Russia during Vladimir Putin's first term in office from 2000 to 2004 and then as finance minister.

During Kasyanov's premiership, Russia grew at the fastest economic pace of all the Putin years, but after being ousted from the government, he went into opposition, so in 2006 he founded and led the Russian People's Democratic Union party, which would soon become part of PARNAS. In 2015, after Boris Nemtsov's assassination, Kasyanov became the chairman of PARNAS himself, and before that he was co-chairman.

Italy

WIP

South Korea

WIP

Japan

WIP

South Africa

WIP

Turkey

WIP

Brazil

WIP

Bolivia

WIP

Trans-Pacific Partnership

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), was a highly contested proposed trade agreement between 12 Pacific Rim economies, the US, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, and Malaysia. The original TPP contained measures to lower both non-tariff and tariff barriers to trade and establish an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism. The TPP has been the subject of conspiracies as the trade deal was suspected by many observers to serve geopolitical purposes in what was part of the Obama Administration's East Asia foreign policy, which has been referred to as the "Pivot to Asia." The TPP would've reduced the signatories' dependence on Chinese trade and brought the signatories closer to the US. Either that or should China have joined the TPP, the Chinese government would've been forced to further liberalize the country's economy to the benefit of US-based corporations. The proposal was signed on 4 February 2016 but not ratified, due to being opposed by many Democrats and Republicans, including both major-party presidential nominees, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders. The US withdrew from the TPP in January 2017, immediately after the newly elected President Donald Trump took office, therefore the TPP could not be ratified as required and did not enter into force. The remaining countries negotiated a new trade agreement called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which incorporates most of the provisions of the TPP and which entered into force on 30 December 2018.

Common tenets

Economics

Neoliberalism is not a comprehensive philosophy in and of itself, but rather a set of ideas in which adherents can find common ground. Its central proposals are:

  • Pro-private property rights
  • Pro-market, but market failures are corrected
  • Pro-fiat money
  • Free trade
  • Free flow of capital
  • Open immigration
  • Individualism

Opposition to:

  • Populism
  • Collectivism
  • Socialism
  • Austrian economics

Additionally, neoliberals can disagree on the size of the welfare state, the necessary regulations, or cooperative economics, but they're never distrustful of markets. It's a big tent, ranging from Third Way to Chicagoan economics. They're generally supportive of New neoclassical synthesis, a combination of New Keynesianism and Neoclassical economics.

Overall, neoliberalism can be described as globalized capitalism (with free flow of goods, capital, and labor) with a strong state and central banking to preserve the market.

International Relations

Along with neorealism, neoliberalism has been the most famous approach since the 1990s. Neoliberalism in IR states that nations should worry about absolute gains, rather than relative gains to other nations. Being a revised version of liberalism, it rejects unscientific applications to be in favor of rigorous testing techniques. The central theory in neoliberalism is the Democratic Peace Theory & Capitalist Peace Theory. It says that no two mature democracies have ever waged wars with each other. By promoting free trade to tie countries together along with encouraging the middle class and liberal democracy, neoliberals want to decrease the chance of war.

Personality

Neoliberalism is usually portrayed as a modern-age businessman and may be portrayed as owning businesses within the comics and will almost always be behind any media within the comics. He is well-spoken and very modern. He is also obsessed with tacos, and will always go out of his way to eat them.

Compared to Neoconservatism, Neoliberal is very much into anything progressive and will use the state to promote socially progressive values... as long as they're profitable, of course. In later years he has increasingly become friendly to ideologies such as Pink Capitalism.

Stylistic Notes

  • Neoliberalism loves to spread his businesses to other nations
  • He loves business and capitalism
  • He hates it when people call him an international bourgeoisie imperialist
  • He is very rich and believes one can never have enough money
  • Wants to intervene in the economies of other countries if it suits his interests
  • Hates almost all left wing ideologies
  • WOULD RATHER DIE THAN BE POOR

How to Draw

Flag of Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism's symbol is based on the logos of the r/neoliberal subreddit. It is a white globe with red landmasses on it.

  1. Draw a ball
  2. Draw a part of the globe on the ball, using red for land and white for the seas. This does not have to be perfect,.
  3. Draw sunglasses on the ball, and you're done!
Color Name HEX RGB
Red #B90000 185, 0, 0
White #FFFFFF 255, 255, 255


Relationships

Chicago Club

  • Chicago School - Thanks for the economics.
  • Ordo-Liberalism - Sorry for stealing your name.
  • Globalism - One world, under the philosophy of Friedman-Hayek!
  • Liberalism - My main ideological predecessor.
  • Conservative Neoliberalism - My conservative son, spreading capitalism worldwide by keeping tradition alive. Reagan and Thatcher are BASED! Also, you're welcome for the money, Prager.
  • Third Way - My child with Social Liberalism is one of the most successful versions of either of us. Most of my modern followers are very similar to you, just more market based.
  • Pink Capitalism - Hurry, Hurry, Hurry! Get your Pride Month merchandise for [insert a %] cheaper this year!
  • Monarcho-Capitalism - Good to see that Saudi Arabia is opening up. MBS is based for his economic policies! Still, Taco Bell is superior to Burger King.
  • Moderatism - My target demographic. Pls ignore the fanaticism of my children.
  • Neoconservatism - Spread capitalism worldwide, baby.
  • Neo-Libertarianism - Same as above but libertarian. Especially based if Chicagoan and not Austrotard.
  • Interculturalism - The melting pot model and the promotion of globalization will certainly help unite the people... To make a profit from, of course!
  • Rockefeller Republicanism - Now this is a GOP I can get behind! In retrospect, you were probably a better pick than Goldwater in ‘64.
  • European Federalism - The EU is one of our most important and treasured institutions. We mustn't let the populists and nationalists take it away from us!
  • Liberal Conservatism - Sometimes says he doesn't like how "woke" I can get. But I've taught him well and like discussing economics with him.
  • Conservative Liberalism - Thanks for defending me, here's some cash, Denny!
  • Liberal Feminism - Yassss, more female CEOs! :D
  • Social Liberalism - My dear cousin. Although he says he doesn't like my welfare cuts, I know that he knows deep down that he loves me and my ideas on running an economy, especially in more recent years.
  • Big Tent Liberalism - We both pull from many different strains within liberalism to achieve successful policy, though I am somewhat more ideological than you. You’re too willing to compromise with SocDem, but I can easily look past that since we have essentially the same goals.
  • Pinochetism - One of the most based dictators in modern history. Salvador Allende deserved to be couped and most of your other victims deserved the ride.
  • Authoritarian Capitalism - Bad for PR but Yeltsin, Mubarak, Kagame, Đukanović,Mitsotakis etc. had based economic policies. And mabye, i could use you one day in the future to opress c*mmies,p*pulists and please Megacorps...
  • Reactionary Liberalism - You have a weird social stance but I care more for economics anyway. Morsi, Bolsonaro, Kast and Añez have all my respect.
  • Japanese Liberal Democracy - Similar to the above, Yasuhiro Nakasone and Junichiro Koizumi were especially based. RIP Shinzo Abe - he was a great man, though I didn’t always agree with him. But that Tarō Asō reminds me of one disgusting old man.
  • Gamers - If you vote for me, you'll have better online, more games along with more money, and individual rights to dedicate to your hobby, do we have a deal?
  • Georgism - Finally, someone else who understands that we can tax in a non-distortionary way without getting rid of taxes altogether. Plus, Friedman said that LVT was the *least bad* tax.
  • Post-Industrialism - Service economy gang.
  • American Model - The leader of the hawk army!

Potential Customers

  • Classical Liberalism - My grandfather doesn't like my regulations and invasions. Overall, shares many similarities with them.
  • Conservatism - We used to be buddies back in the day, but my most modern cadets dislike you.
  • Progressivism - We don't have the best relationship in history, but recently we’re kinda getting along. Why so friendly towards leftists though? Still prefer Pink Capitalism over you.
  • Social Democracy - A worse version of social liberalism, you're way too regulatory and collectivist, but at least you support capitalism and are better than 90% of other hard-left ideologies. Your right-wing variants are based, but most of your left-wing variants are cringe.
  • Welfarism - Can be a waste of money, and can produce negative side effects, but can also be used sparingly to achieve greater opportunity for future entrepreneurs. I personally like workfare tbh.
  • Yeltsinism - Although I am honored that you have chosen me as the economic model for modern Russia, your failed policies have brought to life the commie's fantasy notions of capitalism, making Russians nostalgic for the Soviet Union. But in any case, you are still better than Putin.
  • Dengism - Thank you for ditching Maoism and making China great and rich (Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji especially were good). It's a shame that Xi is going Nazbol.
  • Ho Chi Minh Thought - Sort of like the above, and at least you accepted IMF loans, but stop killing people, okay?
  • Fordism - My true hero and ultimate utopia. Uh... I mean... totalitarianism bad?
  • Corporatocracy - Pardon? That's not what I meant, my goal was to limit monopolies in the first place so every business has a chance. But I admit sometimes big companies benefit the economy, and I don't want to remove you for merely being "too big".
  • National Capitalism - For all your flaws, I must say that Videla and Banzer left a net positive impact on Argentina and Bolivia respectively. Sadly, the Wagner group hangs out with that f***er and Pat Buchanan is a wimpy paleocon (used to work with our savior Reagan, but still).
  • State Liberalism - Same as the previous guys, but with pink paint, so he is a bit better. Might want to learn from him, he seems to be heading in the right direction for the future- *StatLib points an AK-47 at Neolib*
    • Refer to me as "he" one more time and it's off to the nonbinary firing squad for you, bigot! FYI, I sexually identify as an attack helicopter that throws r*actionary c*mmunist bigots into the ocean, and my pronouns are heli/copter.
  • World Federalism - Based ultra-globalism and forcing disparate peoples to come together for the progress of humanity, still a bit too extreme for my taste... I also don't like how you cooperate with leftists. But thanks for creating the UN!
  • Regulationism - Depends on their impact on GDP growth weighed with the reduction of negative externalities.
  • Bidenism - You used to be a lot cooler before you became all protectionist and anti-Reaganomics. I suppose it could have been worse though, you're still better than Trump.
  • National Liberalism - You like Thatcher too, but we had a huge falling out after Brexit.
  • Korwinism - I do admire your Capitalist Utopia dreams and shocking Soycialists however, you getting into feuds with Progressives and Cultural Liberals and idiotic remarks towards women and Ukraine scare out the Customers Voters and make them support PIS or The Left. Also I'm more of a Hołownia-Trzaskowski-Tusk Man myself and Petru won the debate with Mentzen. Still better than The Protectionist Populist Bosak and Braun who would bring Putin to Poland in a week.
  • Hayekism - Upstanding economist and philosopher, but, please, embrace globalism and reject Austrian economics.
  • Civic Nationalism - You're pro-immigrant... but want strong borders? Damn dude, you're making me kinda confused here.
  • Libertarianism - Both of us share credit for aspects of Reaganomics during the 1980s, along with NeoCon. A libertarian originally found me. That said, you can get kinda isolationist, and I don’t support free markets because of some vaguely-defined “freedom,” I support them because they produce the best outcomes.
  • Social Authoritarianism - Mostly awful except for Thaksin who found a way to combine free-market friendly policy with welfare. Also, Thaksin was based.
  • Agrarianism - Terrible idea to base an economy off farming, but you’re necessary in some capacity so that I can have more of that delicious foooood...
  • Indigenism - Stop being such a baby about my grandparents taking your land. The Squamish Nation is based, though.
    • Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?
    • Wait, so you're telling me I can sell air?
  • Trumpism - We were friends, waaay back in time but now he's a tariff maniac and too anti-open border, also you're the rigger, not me, Biden or the "Metropolitan Elite." Also, you stole MAGA from Reagan, how dare you?
  • Imperialism - I like to say we're different but Friedman said that India was better under British rule and you've brought free trade and (sometimes) liberal democracy to many third-world countries. Also, Thatcher fought to maintain British control of the Falklands Islands. There's no shame in admitting that you've been a net positive in bringing progress to the "Global South", for all your faults.
  • White Nationalism - Thatcher did help you and called ANC terrorists, but the 21st-century version of me is multicultural and you are now bad for PR.
  • One-Nation Conservatism - Moans that I "hijacked" The Tories in The 70s and is too welfarist and sometimes even protectionist. In recent times you became more open to the market and my ideas, but Brexit was a huge mistake. Good to see Truss quickly replaced you, but she sadly rage-quit after 45 days.
  • Erdoğanism - Erdonomics was pure triumph! Shame how you turned out in the end. Also, despite the fact you murdered a lot of Kurds and Alevis, which makes you a hypocrite.
  • Gandhian Socialism - Socialist but at least you have a lot of marketable quotes.
  • Green Liberalism - Sometimes polluting industries can benefit the economy (they also sometimes fund my followers), and only an idiot would intentionally destroy his source of income. But some of my followers support green laws.
  • Right-Wing Populism - AfD, British Reformism, FPÖ and SVP I can work with just fine and Maggie with Ronnie were deep inspirations for the both of us however you start being bullocks and making conspiracies that Georgie controls the world or whatever the weather and Orbán and Åkesson are bleech, also Vox back-stabbed me. I start being more open-minded myself now.

Global Poor Haters

  • Mercantilism & Austrian School - Gold isn't money lol.
  • Irish Socialist Republicanism - Thankfully, the IRA did not kill Margaret. And stop using her grave as a gender-neutral toilet.
  • Anarcho-Capitalism - This idiot somehow thinks that completely unregulated capitalism is a good idea. All that would happen is a monopolistic race to the bottom. Anarchy has no benefits, it just leads to chaos.
  • Protectionism - Why do you hate the global poor?
  • PiSism - KON-STY-TUC-JA. Also, why do you keep accusing Wałęsa of being a communist agent when he was a freedom fighter? The Kaczyński's were film stars in their childhood, but that does not automatically make them commie agents.
  • Social Fascism - Unironic social fascism is my second-to-worst nightmare. Even ML agrees with me that this sucks.
  • Alter-Globalism - Wants to do Globalism without me!
  • Conservative Socialism - You will never take over the Labor Party!
  • Democratic Socialism - You will never take over the Democratic Party!
  • Marxism–Leninism - Thinks my policies are "bad for the working class" or something. In reality, your policies have eroded human rights whenever implemented and made things worse for everyone, even the workers. I destroyed you slowly along with Liberal Socialism who did the job from the inside and ended the threat of a nuclear war.
  • Fascism - Thinks I'm a degenerate for believing in trans rights and free trade.
  • Nazism - Supporting immigration, diversity, and free trade is evidence-based! Anti-Semitic bigoted protectionist scum!
  • Strasserism - What do you mean, "We must take from the right nationalism without capitalism and from the left socialism without internationalism"? Capitalism and internationalism are awesome. You are literally the polar opposite of me.
  • Fourth Theory - "Liberalism must go!". WHO MUST GO? Hey, Pino cousin, we have another target for shark food!
    • The helicopter is not enough. We need to throw that thing from the ISS.

Gallery

Portraits

  • (tuskism) by zhen

    (tuskism) by zhen

Comics and Artwork

Further Information

YouTube

Channels

Videos

Wikipedia

Media

Articles

Online Communities

Literature

Neoliberal Reading List

Critiques

The Neo-Liberal Project

Notes

  1. ↑ Neoliberals are often understood to be more diplomatic than Neoconservatives.
  2. ↑ As in Republican Factions.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Always in relation to economics, often (but not necessarily) in relation to culture, international help etc.
  4. ↑ The included video is often shit-posted on the internet, mainly Wykop.pl and Facebook.
  5. ↑ While Jiang was initially opposed to market liberalism, during the late 1990's he became persuaded by Zhu Rongji and Cai Xia to embrace the privatization prosess of SOE and free-market capitalism in order to secure foreign support.

References

  1. ↑ "Martel Mike: «Bloomberg is not a democrat; He's a Maoist.», breitbart.com. 20 February 2020.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "The ‘liberals’ who don’t care about free speech", Spiked-Online. 19 February 2021.
  3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msqjj1cbSVc
  4. ↑ [1], Wiadomosci.pl.
  5. ↑ "Falandyzacjaprawa", Polish Wikipedia.
  6. ↑ [2], Youtube (Poland).
  7. ↑ "Presidency of Dmitriy Medvedev.", Wikipedia.
  8. ↑ Premiership of Narendra Modi#Economic policies, Wikipedia.

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