A Brief History Of Neoliberalism

In Chapter 2, Harvey describes how neoliberalism was installed around the world, focusing on places where it could not be installed through military action and social repression, as in the case of Chile described in Chapter 1. He focuses on the implementation of neoliberalism in the United States and the United Kingdom under Reagan and Thatcher in the 1980s.

Harvey begins with a discussion of the work of 20th-century Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, who described how “common sense” is used to create political consent. In the United States, the notion of “freedom” is central to people’s cultural common-sense understanding of values. Through institutions like think-tanks, universities, and the media, elites created a common-sense understanding that neoliberalism was essential to freedom. As common sense, this understanding is imbued with a certain matter-of-factness that renders it largely unquestionable. Armed with this common-sense understanding, elites gain state power and create laws inspired by a neoliberal ideology rooted in this notion of freedom.

In the 1960s and 1970s, social movements globally advocated for greater freedom as well as social justice. Neoliberalism was able to use the idea of freedom to create splits between collective traditional organized labor, such as unions, and student movements that wanted more individual freedoms, as in France in 1968.