Neoliberalism

pp. 72-94

in: Nicholas Gane, Max Weber and contemporary capitalism, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

Abstract

The previous two chapters have explored the ways in which Weber's writings can be used to address the underlying structures and dynamics of contemporary capitalism and the markets which are to be found at its core. This chapter will extend this work by turning to the question of neoliberalism: a political economy which furthers the reach of capitalism by injecting market dynamics, and in particular principles of competition, into the basic fabric of social life and culture. There are many existing accounts of the political and intellectual trajectories of contemporary neoliberalism (see, in particular, Peck, 2010; Hall, 2011), but the aim of this chapter is to explore connections that to date have been largely neglected between Weber's economic sociology and the emergence of early forms of neoliberal thought (notable exceptions are Clarke, 1982; Holton and Turner, 1989:30–67). This exercise will start by using the writings of Michel Foucault, and in particular his 1978–9 lectures on biopolitics (Foucault, 2008), as a resource for exploring the different governmentalities that underpin liberal and neoliberal political economy. Foucault's work is useful because it treats neoliberalism not simply as an ideology of laissez-faire but as a form of governmentality that is premised upon a normative model of the market and its relation to the state and its related institutions.