Third, the term is effectively used in many different ways, such that its appearance in any given article offers little clue as to what it actually means.
Second, neoliberalism is often left undefined in empirical research, even by those who employ it as a key independent or dependent variable. In part, proponents avoid the term because neoliberalism has come to signify a radical form of market fundamentalism with which no one wants to be associated.
Neo liberalism free#
First, neoliberalism is employed asymmetrically across ideological divides: it is used frequently by those who are critical of free markets, but rarely by those who view marketization more positively. Based on a content analysis of journal articles, the first section of the article documents three key characteristics of this use. In this article, we analyze contemporary scholars’ unusual use of neoliberalism in the study of political economy and offer an explanation for why this situation has come about. In a review of 148 articles on neoliberalism published in the top comparative politics, development, and Latin American studies journals between 19, we did not find a single article focused on the definition and usage of neoliberalism, nor are we aware of one published elsewhere. In stark contrast to such concepts, the meaning of neoliberalism has attracted little scholarly attention. Neoliberalism shares many attributes with “essentially contested” concepts such as democracy, whose multidimensional nature, strong normative connotations, and openness to modification over time tend to generate substantial debate over their meaning and proper application (Gallie 1956). We conclude by proposing several ways that the term can regain substantive meaning as a “new liberalism” and be transformed into a more useful analytic tool.ĭespite its prevalence, scholars’ use of the term neoliberalism presents a puzzle.
Gallie’s framework for analyzing essentially contested concepts to explain why the meaning of neoliberalism is so rarely debated, in contrast to other normatively and politically charged social science terms.
We show that neoliberalism has undergone a striking transformation, from a positive label coined by the German Freiberg School to denote a moderate renovation of classical liberalism, to a normatively negative term associated with radical economic reforms in Pinochet’s Chile. To explain these characteristics, we trace the genesis and evolution of the term neoliberalism throughout several decades of political economy debates. Based on a content analysis of 148 journal articles published from 1990 to 2004, we document three potentially problematic aspects of neoliberalism’s use: the term is often undefined it is employed unevenly across ideological divides and it is used to characterize an excessively broad variety of phenomena. Yet, in contrast to other prominent social science concepts such as democracy, the meaning and proper usage of neoliberalism curiously have elicited little scholarly debate. In recent years, neoliberalism has become an academic catchphrase.
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