Neoliberal Ideology

Just as the ideology of Progress has been absolutely vital to the development of current power structures, its highly successful offspring, neoliberal ideology, is crucial to the maintenance of systemic inequality.

Neoliberal ideology is a "survival of the fittest" perspective that upholds competition and individualism as the engine of Progress.  According to this ideology, wealth is the result of harder work, higher intelligence, and superior techniques, and, as such, is in some way a measure of a person's worth as a human being.  Competition ensures Progress by weeding out the "unworthy" and incentivizing beneficial behaviors by giving them their just due.

Neoliberalism is perhaps so successful because it has found fertile ground in multiple domains, particularly in various sciences (giving it the appearance of a "natural law").  For example, some of the earliest evidence of neoliberalism (or, at that time, just "liberalism") is apparent in the field of demography with the concept of "survival of the fittest."  At the same time, analogies were made between the domains of economics, population studies, and biology, ultimately leading to Social Darwinism in economics (classical economics itself being pervaded by neoliberal ideology), and Darwinian evolutionary theory.  The latter, for its part, was from the very beginning associated with racism and the eugenics movement.  The first European eugenics society was spearheaded by Darwin's compadres.  All of these schools of thought and social movements are examples of neoliberal ideology because they are premised on the idea that the "unfittest" of the human race should not be given a helping hand, lest they get in the way of Progress, which demands that they wither away and leave only the strong to survive.

(Although I am no ardent Darwin fan, I would be remiss if I did not note:  Darwin himself did not espouse a "survival of the fittest" paradigm.  He put forward more of a tautological observation that the effect of a particular trait on reproductive success, if any, and according to given environmental conditions, which are always subject to change, determines its prevalence within a population.  Thus, if something is "fit," it is only fit for the particular conditions that exist now, and not in general; and it is "fit" only in terms of reproduction.)

It is clear how neoliberal ideology legitimates the social order.  It is used to create the illusion of an equal playing field while diverting attention away from exploitation and enduring structures of inequality.  Inequality is perceived to result from "natural" differences in ability, intelligence, work ethic, etc.  Consequently, the poor are held responsible for their poverty and the rich are venerated for their success - for wealth is a measure of one's moral character.

Additionally, neoliberalism seeks to channel movements for social reform into strategies based on competition, market participation, private/individual initiative and the use of inequalities to create incentives:  processes that exacerbate existing inequalities by more fully entrenching the poor and oppressed in the exploitative relationships that structure the "free" market.  Any reform movement that seriously challenges the status quo, such as redistribution of wealth, is seen as an egregious crime against nature.

Finally, neoliberal ideology, by insisting that our current economic system is based on free market enterprise (when, in fact, it has limited the freedom of markets), allows capitalism to be defined in such a way that everything desirable is encompassed  by the definition (freedom, technology, efficiency) while the pitfalls and limitations (waste, debt, instability, monopolies, exploitation) of capitalism are, not only excluded, but construed as either internal "malfunctions" (the result of rogue individuals not playing by the rules; e.g. those idiots on Wall Street who created the current financial crisis) or as external rivals pitted against the capitalist system.  Every negative aspect of capitalism in its essence is portrayed as a perversion of capitalism or its antithesis.


In sum, neoliberal ideology looks at structures of exploitation and oppression and insists it is watching a fair game conducted on an even playing field.