Neoliberalism as a Class Ideology

By Aditya Rajan

Despite having emerged as the dominant ideology today, favoured by a plethora of governments in both the developed and developing world, Neoliberalism has failed to deliver on the suppression of several economically rooted issues facing humanity today. Instead, it has exacerbated some of these issues, including one that particularly found its spotlight in the post-pandemic world: globally-permeated classism.

The primary evidence for the thesis presented is through an evaluation of the economic situation in the world today through a social lens. Upon assessing the average rate of economic growth per capita in developing and OECD countries during the 1980-1998 period, the time at which neo-liberalism is said to have reached its maximum expression, it is clear the income inequality between the top class and bottom class of society has been growing unequivocally.

The statistics assert that this gap has grown from 78 times to 114 times, substantiated by the fact that the top 1 percent of the global population receives 57% of the global income as of a report published in 2002. More recent reports, such as the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2021, attributes 45.8% of global wealth to the 1.1% of the world’s population, although the report does acknowledge drawbacks in its wealth assessment methodology

The link between neoliberalism and the conclusions drawn from the statistics presented is that the nature of limited state intervention and power has only served to bolster the economic prowess of the top 1%. Keeping historical context in mind, neoliberal ideology was rooted in the environment fostered by a post-WWII society. It was forged by the dominant classes, in response to the gains made by the peasant and working classes as a result of the war. Considering this perspective recontextualizes several key factors of neoliberal theory and their role. Privatization of services, deregulation of labor markets and reduction of social public expenditures were direct examples of policies that played a role in suppressing the working class by reducing their choices, their independence and their safety nets respectively. Other policies that had more of a social impact, such as the promotion of consumerism and promotion of anti-interventionist discourse, played the vital role of isolating the working class from themselves.