Journal Article

How Neoliberalism Changed Liberalism

Braun, Jerome

2023

Overview

This review essay uses Mariana Mazzucato, The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy (Penguin Books, 2018), and William Davies, The Limits of Neoliberalism: Authority, Sovereignty, and the Logic of Competition (SAGE, 2017) to illustrate the end results of historical changes starting in the 18th century, primarily but not exclusively in Britain and America, in ideas on social solidarity and economic value that have influenced jurisprudence relating to the place of government in setting standards and regulating economic markets. The result has been a cultural evolution from the values of liberalism, where the economy is made safe for the functioning of society as ruled by government, in essence their version of the rule of law, to the values of neoliberalism where the government is made safe for the functioning of markets, thus another version of the rule of law. The preparatory material sets the stage for discussing the recent book by Joseph Fishkin and William E. Forbath, The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution: Reconstructing the Economic Foundations of American Democracy (Harvard University Press, 2022) where they very much make the case that the early American constitutional tradition embodies what I call classical liberal values that emphasize the purpose of government for reducing social class tensions by limiting the growth of maldistribution of wealth and power and the growth of oligarchy. They claim this original tradition has been severely undercut by values that put economic markets on a pedestal so that in many ways they undercut and substitute for governmental action in producing economic justice that would otherwise weaken the growth of oligarchy. This development has reached the point that the values of neoliberalism have started to replace the values of classical liberalism as fundamental sources of constitutional interpretation, a development that existed in the past, but that has gained major strength more recently, particularly within the last generation. I then discuss Francis Fukuyama, Liberalism and Its Discontents (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022) as a book that exemplifies classical liberal ideals while discussing economic consequences mostly in a broad sense.

• Publisher: Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: 18th century / Constitutions / Cultural change / Democracy / Distributive justice / Economic development / Global economy / Globalization / Government / Jurisprudence / Law / Liberalism / Markets / Neoliberalism / Oligarchy / Rule of law / Social classes / Social cohesion / Sovereignty / Traditions / Value / Wealth