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The Death of Neo-Liberalism

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The Death of Neo-Liberalism New Labour has failed to develop a coherent project of its own, argue Eric Hobsbawm, Stuart Hall and Suzanne Moore. Geoff Mulgan disagrees The Big Picture economists and an allegedly foolproof sys­ tem, gambled away well over $100 billion until it had to be saved by, in effect, a res­ cue operation of the US Federal govern­ ment. It was only months ago that Michel The Death Of Camdessus of the IMF was referring to the financial turmoil in the East as 'a blessing in disguise' because it would move the Asian tiger economies towards more American-style free market capitalism. He does so no longer. No wonder 'the IMF's Neo-Liberalism reputation' - this is The Times speaking- 'has sunk to its lowest since the body was The global crisis heralds the end set up ... in 1944' (August 19 1998). Under of free-market fundamentalism. But alas, the impact of economic crisis not only gov­ ernments but some of the most passionate argues Eric Hobsbawm, New Labour has champions of free market globalisation failed to break with neo-liberalism among economists, like Paul Krugman and Jagdish Bhagwati, are now envisaging het­ erodox economic policies like exchange control, amid weepings and gnashings of 2 funny thing happened on the with nationalism, fundamentalism and the teeth from the City of London . And it has way to the millennium: in no longer operational communism. I mean demonstrated, in the case of Indonesia, that 1998 Karl Marx came back. that for some time now he has pointed out a major breakdown of capitalism can over­ Ten years after it was that the uncontrolled global financial sys­ throw powerful political regimes. Aassumed that he had been definitively tem, which he had exploited as a highly The time has therefore come to rethink interred under the rubble of the Berlin successful speculator, was an invitation to the assumptions on which the policies of Wall. 10 years after the irreversible tri­ disaster, and that the idea that it is beyond too many governments, including our own umph of liberalism and the end of history control cannot be accepted. Others have New Labour government, have been based had been proclaimed, here he is back in also come to the conclusion that the insti­ since about 1980 and the opinions of most circulation on the 150th anniversary of the tutions which have attempted to regulate it, economists even longer. These are basical­ Communist Manifesto which, to everyone's and notably the IMF, have been barking up ly the assumptions of laissez-faire, namely, surprise, including the ageing family of the the wrong tree. It is now evident that the of the superiority of the free market econ­ old marxists, produced an enormous echo critics are right. omy to any other3. Why this should have in the press, entirely unexpected even a few The crisis which began in South-East and appealed to ideologically individualist months earlier. And all except some rare East Asia and is now, according to The governments committed to capitalism on old cold-war holdouts stressed one thing: Economist, turning into a global capitalist principle is clear. Why governments like what this man wrote 150 years ago about crisis has suddenly reminded us just how Tony Blair's could be described as Thatch- the nature and tendencies of global capital­ badly capitalism can go wrong. This should erism in trousers needs more explanation. I ism, rings amazingly true today! The tri- long have been evident from the former suggest there are four reasons. umphalism of 1989 has been replaced by USSR, the only country in the world in irst, that by the end of the 1970s nervous assurances that, whatever the which the theory that all an economy needs [ the classic policies of the 'Golden arguments of Das Kapital , the system was, is the introduction of the free market, has Age' mixed economy had ceased after all, basically sound. been tested - as it turns out, to destruction. to work well, and those of state- Still people rediscover the downside of Still, nobody paid much attention to the planneFd socialism were hardly working at capitalism not by reading the Manifesto but unparalleled social and human tragedy of all. What is more, the vertiginous rise of a by observing what it does in practice. That the peoples of the former USSR until the genuinely global transnational economy there was something wrong with the way Asian crisis threatened to destabilise the deprived social democracy of its major the global economy worked in the 1990s global financial system via the financial col­ resource, namely the ability to control what first became obvious not to economists and lapse of Russia. happened to and within the borders of its politicians but to thinking capitalists like The Asian crisis also showed two other national economies. This was clearly George Soros. I don't just mean that Soros things. It has played hell with the reputa­ demonstrated by the failure of the Mitter­ announced many months ago (Atlantic tion of bankers, economic advisers and rand government in France in 1980-82. Magazine, February 1997), to his credit as a gurus for understanding what is going on. Something had to be done. This is the justi­ person rather than as a businessman, that The giant, and spectacularly misnamed, fication of the project of modernising free market capitalism is the enemy of his Long-Term Capital Management Fund, Labour. This is also the reason why no guru Karl Popper's 'open society', along with the assistance of two Nobel-prize Labour Party which managed to get itself Blair: 'When I look at the Welfare State I don't see a pathway out of poverty, a route into work or 4 MARXISM TODAY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1998 elected could be expected simply to reverse including labour, but there is not a single Response: 1 don't think the hold government in the world - certainly no everything Thatcher had done: some of it, of neo-liberalism has been broken. You most people will now agree, needed doing. freely elected one - whatever their com­ could set up tests to explore how far Second, there is what might be called the mitment to the free market, which permits New Labour sees the shift in economic consensus of the neo-classical academic unrestricted and uncontrolled immigration economists who dream of a nirvana of an - and they know why. That is why, whatev­ policy not just nationally but regionally optimally efficient and frietionless econo­ er the theory of globalisation says, there is and globally. You could test its contri­ my of a self-adjusting global market, that is relatively less international migration today bution to reform of financial markets to say an economy with minimal interfer­ than there was a century ago. Again, and rethinking ways of reframing mar­ ence by states or other institutions. Given though every British government since kets. At all those levels not only has the state of the world, this implied a Thatcher talks about the need for a flexible New Labour not contributed, they systematic policy of privatising and dereg­ labour market and wages capable of keep­ haven't even begun to ask the right ulating the economy. Some of them, ing our enterprises competitive on the questions. That is the extent to which starting with Friedrich von Hayek and globe, no European government actually they remain locked into the framework Milton Friedman, did so for ideological believes that cutting wages and conditions inherited from the late 1970s and reasons, but mostly they did so. I guess, out can make our labour costs competitive 1980s. But the difficult question is: is of a taste for abstract technical elegance, with, say, Indian or Chinese labour costs there a plausible alternative economic combined with a total lack of sense for the and none are even trying to make them so. framework which a crisis in neo-liberal­ real-life context of their propositions. Conversely, global laissez-faire doesn't just ism might shake out, or which begins Theirs is economics without political, social come into being by the process of evolu­ to set the framework for thinking or any other non-mathematical dimension. tion. It has to be introduced by acts of polit­ about new alternatives conceptually, In practice, of course, it is an economics ical power just like protectionism. institutionally and politically. The diffi­ which fitted the economy of transnational 'Some of he third reason for Blair's attach­ culty is that the state's jurisdiction is corporations and other operators in a the most ment to the free market is what limited. These regional and global flows period of boom. This consensus is now at might be called the neo-liberal go way beyond it. There is a conceptual an end. passionate ideologists' equivalent to the old and political hole in which you not only Of course it was always unrealistic in two champions of Tmarxists' belief in historical inevitability: have to rethink the nature of economic respects. One. pure laissez-faire, which free market the global economy is here. It makes any activity theoretically but also the insti­ rests on the doctrine of comparative advan­ globalisation attempt at a national economy or a nation­ tutions to govern it.' tage assumes the optimality of the present are now al policy impossible and therefore point­ distribution of 'advantages'. But, as David less. Any views to the contrary are, in the envisaging David Held, Marxism Today Seminar, Landes points out in his book The Wealth words of an earlier Paul Krugman, 'based 4-6 September 1998 And Poverty Of Nations, 'today's compar­ exchange on the failure to understand even the 5 ative advantage may not be tomorrow's'4.
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