Global Political news/blog for IB Global Politics
What is Neoliberalism?
Neo-liberalism is a set of political and economic policies associated with free market global trade. Pushed by key figures such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, Neoliberals believe that the free market is the key towards achieving individual liberties, job growth, technological innovation, and global cooperation.
Policies associated with neo-liberals would be…
- Lower taxation
- Government regulation
- Removal of Welfare programs
Neoliberals believe that the government should be limited to protecting private property, facilitating global trade, and maintaining a strong military. It’s their belief that government interference in the market creates waste and inefficiencies, and that market forces naturally create the conditions for a strong and inefficient economy.
What is Neo-Marxism?
Neo-Marxism is an ideology that builds upon Marx’s theory of class struggle. Marx believed that history could be interpreted through the class conflicts between the Proletariat and Bourgeois, otherwise simplified as the working class and capitalist class.
These two classes are interpreted through their relationship to the means of production, with that being the means through which the working class’s labor can be utilized to generate wealth. The capitalist class owns the means of production, while the working class utilize it.
Both classes have clashing interests, according to Marx. It is in the interest of the working class to extract as much wealth as possible from their labor, and it is in the interest of the capitalist class to extract as much wealth out of their laborers as possible. It’s through this conflict of interests, that Marx theorizes that history can be explained.
Neo-Marxists expand upon this view. They believe that Marx’s idea of class conflict is real, but over reductive. That there are also additional societal forces that play into societal change; gender, race, culture, etc.
Gramsci, one of the founders of Neo-Marxist thought, theorized that ideology is what controls the working class and that the ruling class’s ideology could be overthrown if the working class were to gain class consciousness (an understanding of their common class interests).
Because of this theory, Neo-Marxists do not believe that a violent revolution of the capitalist system is necessary to solve the world’s problems.
Neo-Marxism, unlike Neoliberalism, is solely a frame of analysis/school of thought. It can describe a variety of positions and isn’t as set in stone as neoliberalism. However, for the purpose of debating in favor of Neo-Marxism, a unifying idea would be achieving class consciousness, as described earlier.
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If I have made any mistakes on Neo-Liberalism or Neo-Marxism, please let me know.
Resources
Fairly standard video on Neoliberalism: https://youtu.be/t41rFqVpB1I?si=Ix4pHkbfKukKGuDI
Literally just a wiki article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism
Pretty good video on NeoMarxism, I think:
Not related to politics, it’s just a vibe tho:
Explains Neoliberalism a bit more in depth, but is 110% biased:
