Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Is Neoliberalism Dead?
Is Neoliberalism Dead?
Apr 3, 2025 10:07 PM

The Chilean Miracle of the 1990s is usually pointed to as a win for the Chicago School of economics, which advocated laissez faire capitalism, limited regulation, and cuts in government spending. But that was then, and this is the era of Bidenomics and a “post-liberal” New Right. Are free markets as dead as General Pinochet?

Read More…

Louis Menand wrote a curious article for the New Yorker called “The Rise and Fall of Neoliberalism.” The article is curious on two fronts: First, though published in a progressive magazine, the article is largely judicious and fair to the concept of neoliberalism. Second, like many other recent articles, the essay sounds the death knell of neoliberalism, which is being replaced, apparently, by what has been called “Global Bidenism.”

This Global Bidenism is itself strange, as it’s a response to Trumpism, which promised to use the government to help create jobs and regulate trade. Global Bidenism is also an about-face for the Democratic Party, which, since Jimmy Carter, has used the language of social democracy to gain votes but has generally proved to be just as neoliberal as the Republican Party.

Prior to adopting millennial “woke” progressivism, which is largely focused on race and gender issues, more radical American progressives had taken the Democrats to task for abandoning the working class and embracing neoliberalism—especially during the Clinton era. One of the most popular radical liberal or “social democrat” critiques of neoliberalism during the era of George W. Bush is Naomi Klein’s 2007 The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Written at a time when radical Democrats were still anti-war, anti-corporate, and pro-working class, Klein’s book chronicles the rise of neoliberalism’s Chicago school of economics and depicts what she sees (rightly or wrongly) as its destruction of many of the world’s economies.

One of Klein’s chapters deals specifically with one of the most pronounced targets of New Left and social democrat anger: the Chilean regime of General Augusto Pinochet. The standard New Left reading of Pinochet’s regime, which Naomi Klein depicts, is that of a horrific amalgamation of South American fascism and American capitalism working in tandem to torture an entire country.

Now e to The Chile Project: The Story of the Chicago Boys and the Downfall of Neoliberalism, written by UCLA economics professor Sebastian Edwards, which provides a much more nuanced and multilayered depiction of the rise and fall of neoliberalism in Chile. While Naomi Klein begins her Shock Doctrine with a discussion of CIA experiments under psychiatrist Donald Ewen Cameron, Sebastian Edwards begins his Chile Project with the U.S. Department of State’s program of the same name. Begun in 1955, the State Department’s “Chile Project” was intended to train Chilean economists in free market principles at the University of Chicago and was part of a wider effort to tilt Latin America in an munist direction.

Given the derisive and intentionally Anglo moniker “Los Chicago Boys,” the University of Chicago–trained economists had little influence during the 1950s and ’60s. However, with the toppling of Salvador Allende by General Augusto Pinochet in 1973, the Chicago Boys came into prominence and helped to import the ideas of Milton Freidman and other neoliberal economists into Chile. It is at this point that most left-wing writers craft the narrative of a seamless garment of Friedmanite economics and Latin American authoritarianism. However, Edwards, with ample evidence and anecdotes (Edwards is himself a University of Chicago–trained Chilean economist), shows that the economic policies of the Chicago Boys should not be seen as synonymous with the life and work of Milton Friedman, and, more importantly, what is understood as the authoritarian nature of the Pinochet regime should be distinguished from that economic school.

Edwards provides a rich history of not only recent Chilean (and American) history but also elements of wider 20th century economic history. As Edwards notes, the term “neoliberal” was developed in the shadow of the rise munism and fascism. He cites Walter Lippmann’s work The Good Society, which argued, as Friedrich Hayek would, for a return to the liberal principles of Adam Smith and Jeremy Bentham. Lippmann’s key point is that what made neoliberalism different from 19th century liberalism was the alleged social benefits of liberalism. The term was used after World War II for the policies of West German leaders Konrad Adenauer and Ludwig Erhard. In America, Milton Friedman, in 1951, penned “Neo-liberalism and Its Prospects.” In the piece, Friedman, like Lippmann before him, touted the alleged economic and social benefits of liberalism. It wasn’t until the 1990s, Edwards argues, that the neoliberalism label earned its now largely negative connotation.

In his discussion of Chile, Edwards does refer to the laissez-faire reforms of the Chicago Boys in Chile as “shock treatment,” a term that Milton Friedman did formulate himself. However, Edwards notes that, with the return of democracy in 1990, Chile had developed into what appeared to be a successful capitalist economy, which has been called the “Chilean miracle.” In fact, Chile would e the richest country in Latin America by 2000. Edwards further notes that, although Augusto Pinochet was accused of numerous human rights abuses and acts of corruption even during his lifetime, the Chilean democratic reformers of the 1990s nevertheless retained the “shock-treatment” economic reforms that were undertaken under his regime (even if some Chicago School economists distanced themselves from Pinochet).

However, despite economic success (achieved at a very high human cost), Chile was overtaken by a radical revolt in 2019. Although earlier revolts had been focused on economic issues, this one, like those throughout the world in the past decade, focused on race and even gender issues. Protestors called for the return of land to the indigenous natives of Chile and demanded a new constitution. In 2021 there was a successful referendum for a new Chilean constitution, which some called an “anti-neoliberal constitution.” In December of that year, Chile elected as president Gabriel Boric, a youthful radical made famous for his casual dress and love of American rock music. Boric attempted to push through the new constitution, but it ultimately failed, and recent electoral developments in Chile have seen a rightward shift.

Neoliberalism may or may not be dead. It may or may not be true that the Democratic Party, under Joe Biden, is no longer the party of Clintonian neoliberalism. But it is certainly true that the Republican Party is no longer solidly the party of Reaganite laissez-faire economics. Conservative critics of at least certain elements of capitalism are no longer marginal figures in the Republican Party and have a prominent voice—both online and on the stages of Republican rallies. There is a general consensus among the New Right at least that the government should have some hand in controlling the market. At the same time, advocates of neoliberalism are not wrong (and even mild critics of neoliberalism will admit) that free market capitalism has given us forts of modernity and tremendous abundance and prosperity. The key question for all conservatives moving forward is how to have economic prosperity as part of a larger political program that does not neglect higher human values.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Rev. Sirico on the Vatican Synod
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Rev. Robert A. Sirico clears away the media hype surrounding the Vatican Synod on the Family and offers an analysis of its early work. He observes that nothing about the synod “challenges the dogma of the church related to the indissolubility of sacramental marriage, the use of artificial contraception, cohabitation and homosexual acts. What it did was soften the tone of these teachings.” But things got interesting. An early report led critics to say that...
Socialists Love Everything About $20 Minimum Wages (Except Paying Such Wages Themselves)
There’s something almost charming about people in American who champion socialism. Yes, their economic views are naive and destructive. And yes most people (though especially the poor) would be much worse off if their vision for “progress” was actually implemented. But it’s hard to be too concerned when they are, at heart, really just capitalists who like to play political dress up. Consider one of their favorite causes, a $20 minimum wage. In their most recent party platform, the Freedom...
Movies That Define America
Don’t you love lists? Intercollegiate Press does too, and they’ve put together “12 Movies That Defined America.” Feel free to argue, debate, add on, cross off as you wish. Here are just a couple of Intercollegiate Press’ choices: The Birth of a Nation – 1915, silent. The first blockbuster, D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation was both celebrated as a great artistic achievement and denounced as racist for its vicious depiction of African Americans and homage to the KKK....
Why Not Just Hand Over the Sermons?
After hearing the news that the city of Houston had ordered several pastors to submit their sermons for legal review, many people had the same reaction as Brian Lee: “My response? So what? Sermons are public proclamation, aren’t they?” Sermons are indeed proclamations intended for the public, and most pastors would be eager for anyone — including public officials — to hear them. So what is the reason for the current objection? Mollie Hemingway explains that the true “governing authorities”...
Reflections on the Passing of Leonard P. Liggio
LiggioAlmost 20 years ago I was invited to speak at the celebratory banquet for the Atlas Economic Research Foundation (now Atlas Network) and the Institute for Humane Studies, then celebrating their 15th and 35th anniversaries respectively. I was an alumnus of both and six years into the launch of the Acton Institute (founded in 1990). Both organizations considered me “successful enough” to reflect at the banquet on how each had influenced my life. It was an undeserved honor, of course,...
Ladies: Give Us Your Most Productive Years, We’ll Hold Your Eggs For You
This story has so many things wrong with it, I hardly know where to start. Apple and Facebook have both announced that will now offer egg-freezing – for non-medical purposes – for their employees (which runs at least $10,000, plus a $500 to $800 annual storage fee.) For panies, it means two things. One, there is a demand from their employees for such an offer. Second, panies themselves see some benefit to this. What it sounds like is this: “It’s...
Why Are So Many Americans Still on Food Stamps?
When the economy takes a downturn and unemployment rises, more people rely on the social safety net and programs like the recently renamed food stamp program called SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). As the economy improves and employment increases, people need to rely less on government provided support. At least that’s what used to happen. But something has changed. From 1969 until 2003, SNAP has been very responsive to changes in the unemployment rate. But from 2003 to 2007, the...
Freedom, Security, and the iPhone
Writing on September 22 in the Wall Street Journal, Devlin Barret and Danny Yadron reported, Last week, Apple announced that its new operating system for phones would prevent law enforcement from retrieving data stored on a locked phone, such as photos, videos and contacts. A day later, Google reiterated that the next version of its Android mobile-operating system this fall would make it similarly difficult for police or Google to extract such data from suspects’ phones. It’s not just a...
Why American slavery wasn’t capitalist
In his new book, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, Edward E. Baptist “offers a radical new interpretation of American history,” through which slavery laid the foundation for and “drove the evolution and modernization of the United States.” In a review of the book for the Wall Street Journal, Fergus M. Bordewich concurs with this central point, noting that “Mississippi…does not have to look like Manchester, England, or Lowell, Mass., to make it...
Is Money Just a Necessary Evil?
If money didn’t exist, would God have ordained that we invent it? Theologian Wayne Grudem says he would since money is simply a tool for our use that makes voluntary exchanges possible: Money makes voluntary exchanges more fair, less wasteful, and far more extensive. We need money in the world in order for us to be good stewards of the earth and to glorify God through using it wisely. If money were evil in itself, then God would not have...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved