Neoliberalism in US Politics

Abstract

In the waning decades of the 20th century, inequalities of wealth and political influence intensified amid what many scholars recognize as a “New Gilded Age.” Scholars point to manifold reasons for these inequalities, including globalization, the declining strength of organized labor, corporate political activity, a shrinking public sector, and tax reforms favoring the wealthy, to cite only a few. These various drivers of inequality, though, did not arise in isolation; an intelligible governing ethos underlies these various phenomena. This ethos is marked by its promotion of private-sector solutions to collective problems vis-à-vis government-led ones, its deference to markets vis-à-vis coordinated collective action, and its focus on entrepreneurialism and consumerism in nearly all facets of life. These features of contemporary political life all cohere into a concept recognized as “neoliberalism.” Depending on whom you ask, this term either helpfully assigns a logic to the amalgam of political problems confronting governance in the 21st century or, alternatively, serves as yet another hackneyed buzzword du jour. This article takes the former perspective, casting neoliberalism as a useful concept uniting a ranging of phenomena of which scholars of US politics ought to be familiar. This article describes and categorizes scholarship on neoliberalism according to three interrelated definitions of the term. Neoliberalism is: (1) a historical and intellectual trajectory that emerged in response to postwar Keynesianism; (2) a political project designed to foster a business-friendly social and political climate; and (3) an endeavor to transform citizenship itself. This article builds on these three characterizations, outlining the major works that explore and explain how neoliberal principles have impacted US politics, policy, and civic life. Scholarship on neoliberalism is vast and wide-ranging. Most of the works cited throughout this article explicitly note the influence of neoliberalism on one aspect or another of American life. Some works, however, uncover a critical aspect of neoliberalism without explicitly accepting or even mentioning the term itself. Collectively, however, these works will give readers a stronger grasp on what neoliberalism is and how the trends and principles associated with it have taken root within US politics and society.