Neoliberalism: Policy, Ideology, Governmentality

The term ‘neoliberalism’ denotes new forms of political-economic governance premised on the extension of market relationships. In critical social science literatures the term has usurped labels referring to specific political projects (Thatcherism, Regeanomics, Rogernomics), and is more widely used than its counterparts including, for example, economic rationalism, monetarism, neoconservatism, managerialism and contractualism.1 Indeed, Jane Jenson (1999) recently used ‘neoliberar as a general descriptor for postwelfare state citizenship regimes. It is in this context that I reassess existing analyses of neoliberalism. The imperative for this examination arises from my growing conviction that many critical…