The End of Neoliberalism

Article excerpt

Neoliberalism's defining virtues, cosmopolitanism and free competition, contained the seeds of its own destruction, according to a sweeping intellectual history. The ideology that dominated policymaking from Reagan and Thatcher onward promised prosperity through deregulation, globalization, and open markets. But the very forces it unleashed, the mobility of capital, the erosion of national boundaries, the intensification of economic competition, destabilized the social consensus that made the system tolerable. Rising inequality, the hollowing of communities, and backlash against immigration have discredited the neoliberal project, leaving policymakers searching for alternatives without a coherent replacement ideology.