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Book:
A Brief History of Neoliberalism
by
David Harvey
About David Harvey
David Harvey is a British Scholar who was born in the year of
1935 in Gillingham, United Kingdom. He went through a
comprehensive system of education and in the year 1961, he
graduated from the University of Cambridge with a PhD in
geography.
He is a reputable writer gaining a lot of popularity from his
books that cover the disciplines of political economy, social
theory and Geography.
His work and perspectives is influenced by the works of early
scholars such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Antonio
Gramsci and Henri Lefebvre. He is a resected individual in
modern Marxism (Castree, 2007).
Harvey has established himself as a major contributor to the
field of study of the contemporary Geography
David Harvey’s work has been recognized in many institutions
of scholarly learning. He has won several awards for his
reputation including Guggenheim Fellowship for Social
Sciences, US & Canada, Patron’s Gold Medal
Either, he was ranked at number 18 in the category of the most
cited author of books in the humanities and social sciences.
Neoliberalism
David Harvey brings forward the concept of neoliberalism in
the political theory and social economy. He effectively applied
this concept to explain the paradigm shifts in economic policies
in China, US, Mexico, Japan among other countries to explain
why individuals needed liberation in social and political scene
He explained this tenet as ‘a theory of political economic
practices that postulates that the welfare of people can best be
improved by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and
skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong
private property rights, free markets, and free trade.’ (Harvey
2005, p. 2)
The founders of the neoliberalism school of thought
argued that arbitrary power undermines the ideal of
civilization through limiting the freedom of individuals
and human dignity. Moreover, state decision are onesided and tend to lean towards the strengths of special
groups that have sufficient power to control major
decisions. The decisions that would be made out of
where the government is involved would be biased
because they will only consider the interests of key
players and not the entire market (Harvey, 2005).
Therefore, neoliberalism calls for the emancipation of powers
of finance, deregulation of the major sectors of economy such
as agriculture and industry, and to lessen the application of
labor laws. But to effectively achieve this new, and acceptable
form of transformation, there would be greater class
compromise and ‘creative destruction’. Harvey (2005) defines
creative destruction to indulge activities that would lead to
institutions that integrates all ethical consideration in the market
place. For example, great leaders such as Margaret Thatcher ,
who was a big promoter of neoliberalism in her country called
for the partnership between private and public sectors to
increase reliance and social and economic development (Yergin
and Stanislaw, 199).
The issue of neoliberalism, however, is looked down upon by
critics who argue its theoretical and philosophical frame of
reference is not sustained and it is not easy to comprehend. The
analysts say that neoliberalism does no follow the scientific
concepts that regard freedom (Chang, 2003). It does not also
disengage the entire involvement and integration of state
activities to propagate individual freedom, private ownership
and entrepreneurial independence. Neoliberalism, in itself,
when regarded as a theoretical framework, does not meet the
constructs of a pure theory. Peck (2004) argues that
neoliberalism has incorporated other elements in its construct
making it difficult to be regarded as an authentic theory.
Despite this inconsistency, neoliberalism is a paradigm
that is relevant in the contemporary society. Harvey
(2005) revealed why neoliberalism emerged as victorious
in the aggression between the social capitalists and the
capitalists. Neoliberalism is what created the Washington
Consensus that would later resolve political and
economic issues in capitalists Blair and Clinton. And so
many individuals and nations have consented to
liberalism in different ways because of its inevitability in
the contemporary world. Some people have involved
neoliberalism through democracy, while others brutality
and opposition.
David Harvey also applied this concept in his work on
‘the right to the city’. He says this it is our right to change
the city by changing ourselves. This book is, therefore,
relevant and valid to explain the idea of city futures. In
my opinion, the idea of neoliberalism is liberal. There is
need to apply rationality in the contemporary Geography
when handling matters of political and economic freedom
for which individual liberation is constructed.
All in all, David Harvey has been cited by many authors,
his articles have even been reviewed by peer scholars.
Thus his work will be authentic for the class.
References
Castree, N. (2007). David Harvey: Marxism, Capitalism and the
Geographical Imagination. New Political Economy, 2(1), pp. 97-116
Chang, H.-J. (2003). Globalisation, Economic Development and the
Role of the State. London: Zed Books.
Harvey, D. (2005). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. New York:
Oxford University Press
Harvey, D. (2008). Social justice and the city. University of Georgia
Press
Peck, J. (2004). Geography and Public Policy: constructions of
neoliberalism. Progress in Human Geography, 28(3), pp. 392 - 405
Yergin, D. and Stanislaw, J. (199). The Commanding Heights: The
Battle Between Government and Market Place that is Remaking the
Modern World . New York: Simon & Schuster.
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