Market, Non-Market and Anti-Market Processes in Neoliberalism. (November 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mercille, Julien; Murphy, Enda
• Is Part Of: Critical sociology. Volume 45:Number 7/8(2019)
• Page Start: 1093
• Page End: 1109
• Publication Date: 2019-11
• Subjects: corporate power -- free market -- neoliberalisation -- neoliberalism -- political economy; Sociology -- Periodicals; 301.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0896920518788391
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0896-9205

Abstract

Research on neoliberalism tends to conceive of it as fundamentally about 'free markets'. But this confuses theoretical with actually existing neoliberalism. This article presents a meta-narrative of neoliberalism since the 1970s that conceptualises it as a political economic project seeking to enhance corporate and elite power through market, non-market and anti-market policies ( vectors of power ). These policies have been propelled globally by two forces and implemented via four mechanisms . The two forces are ideological and police/military power and have convinced or coerced policy-makers and ordinary people into accepting neoliberal change. The four mechanisms have emerged successively over time and all operate in parallel today: policy experiments arose in the 1970s, policy transfers in the 1980s, rule regimes in the 1990s and self-regulation in the 2000s. Our conceptualisation offers a methodological framework to empirically investigate concrete aspects of neoliberalism in various places and time periods.