Abstract
This chapter aims to examine the potential illiberal nature of Anglo-American neoliberalism. Its assumption is that illiberalism is a key to understanding the economic, political, and potentially institutional transformations that took place under Thatcher and Reagan. The Anglo-American governments of the 1980s would thus constitute a model that, being both neoliberal and illiberal, is relevant to understanding the contemporary growth of “illiberalism.” Indeed, this hypothesis should help explain the tactical alliance between neoliberals and populist-nationalist-conservatives. The chapter will therefore begin by showing the lack of thought given to certain contradictions in the definition of the neoliberal market economy, which largely invalidates the over-simplistic representation of the relationship between the rule of law and the free market. Outlining this first break between liberalism and neoliberalism will then make it possible to establish a link between phenomena that are not often compared, because of the conceptual and semantic confusions that surround these questions.
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Notes
- 1.
We will use the concept of ideology in a “positive” way, (i.e., as set of both descriptive and prescriptive ideas that guide the political behaviour of actors by giving them meaning). See Freeden (2013).
- 2.
“Ideology is not just a logical and rational elaboration, like a philosophical system or a scientific theory. In every ideology there is a part of emotion, a mythical part, a normative part, a logical part; every ideology has a practical, not a theoretical, function; it proposes models of behaviour, rather than suggesting methods of knowledge” (Gentile, 2004).
- 3.
- 4.
Hayek himself was far from being an apologist of laissez-faire: “Nothing has probably done so much harm to the liberal cause as the stubborn insistence of some liberals on certain massive principles, such as above all the laissez- faire rule” (Hayek, 1976).
- 5.
“I said at the outset that ‘in some ways’ the message of this book ‘is even more relevant to the United States today than it was when it created a sensation … half a century ago.’ (…) On both sides of the Atlantic, it is only a little overstated to say that we preach individualism and competitive capitalism, and practice socialism” (Friedman, 1994).
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- 7.
This critique will be based on a synthesis between Schmittian constitutional theory and public choice theory (Posner & Vermeule, 2011).
- 8.
“These neoliberal constitutional provisions—the inclusion of a specific regulatory style; the enshrinement of fiscal austerity; the focus on free trade and export-led growth, as well as a pref-erence for market protection versus state intervention—are certainly far from crystal clear either in their phrasing or practice. But they mark the starting line at a very specific point, which as a result limits the possible choices, with less inclination to redistribute resources, to redefine development, or to experiment with social policy” (Alviar García, 2019: 55).
- 9.
Notably on the formal or substantive nature of the rule of law, this divergence is to be put into perspective since both English and American doctrine highlight a challenge to the existing balance within their respective legal systems.
- 10.
- 11.
“How has freedom become the calling card and the energy of a formation so manifestly unemancipatory, indeed routinely characterized as heralding ‘illiberal democracy’ in its attacks on equal rights, civil liberties, Constitutionalism, and basic norms of tolerance and inclusion, and in its affirmations of white nationalism, strong statism, and authoritarian leaders? How and why have freedom and illiberalism, freedom and authoritarianism, freedom and legitimized social exclusion and social violence, become fused in our time?” (Brown, 2018).
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Demias-Morisset, R. (2022). Anglo-American Neoliberalism: An Illiberal Model?. In: Lévy, N., Chommeloux, A., Champroux, N.A., Porion, S., josso, S., Damiens, A. (eds) The Anglo-American Model of Neoliberalism of the 1980s. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12074-9_6
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