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The World from Neo-Liberal Globalization to Neo-Populist Ethno-Nationalism: from the Law of Nature to the Law of Nurture

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The World from Neo-Liberal Globalization to Neo-Populist Ethno-Nationalism: from the Law of Nature to the Law of Nurture Journal of International Politics Volume 2, Issue 3, 2020, PP 30-38 ISSN 2642-8245 The World from Neo-Liberal Globalization to Neo-Populist Ethno-Nationalism: From the Law of Nature to the Law of Nurture Sibuh Gebeyaw Tareke* Department of Political Science and International Studies, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia *Corresponding Author: Sibuh Gebeyaw Tareke, Department of Political Science and International Studies, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. ABSTRACT Neoliberalism arose from classical liberalism, which was believed in individual liberty, equal opportunity, and private property should administer by individual ‘law of nature’ while the ‘law of state’ regarded as a ‘necessary evil’. When neoliberalism had emerged in 1970s, it replaced the theories of Keynesianism, which targeted state regulation on the economic policy; towards a more ‘monetarist’ individual self-regulating and ‘market law’ approach. This “Individual against all” approach of neoliberalism led the mass to live like slaves in slavery age and peasants in feudalism. Then economic crises aggravated and the ‘law of identity’ emerged or neoliberalism shifted towards all against all approaches of neo-populism. This paper explores the neoliberal law of the individual over the mass and its practical failure; next it discusses all against all laws of neo-populism and its threats. In the end, it provides the missing laws of both the ‘neo-neo’ approaches as a solution anda concluding remark. Keywords: Neo-liberalism; Neo-populism; Law-of-Nature; Law-of-market; Law-of-State; Law-of-Nurture INTRODUCTION revolutionary to modern liberalism-the trend towards big government and state intervention The private ownership of the means of production (law of the state) that had characterized much of was introduced as a distinct movement in the the twentieth century. Thus, neoliberalism has Age of Enlightenment, when liberalism became seen the market as morally and practically superior popular among Western philosophers and to government and any form of political control. economists. Liberalism sought to replace the That is why they recognized the market state norms of hereditary privilege, state religion, (the law of the market) instead of the nation absolute monarchy, divine right of kings and state (the law of the state) (Hayek, 1944, p. 95; traditional conservatism with representative and Friedman, 1962, p.38-50). Moreover, the democracy and the rule of law. Liberals ended known ideological guardians of neoliberalism the mercantilist policies of the15th and 16th Hayek and Friedman again emphasized on century, loyal monopolies and other barriers to labour and capital mobility, cultural pluralism, trade and as an alternative, it promoted free and economic inequality clashes with the loyalty market economy or economic man, while the most people feel towards different forms of law of a state attracted on social and political “social capital”, where and if, the world follow issues (Kelly, 2005). neoliberalism and market fundamentalism (Ibid). This period also known as a belief in which an It meant that the natural rights of every human individual possesses the natural rights of free activity like, social, economic and political will and every individual is equally endowed aspects have been controlled by individual with the God-given right of self-determination capitalists through the free market economy. and the ability to consent to be governed. In the Here the free market law maintains the natural 20th century, the economic man model of rights of individuals negative freedom only and liberalism replaced by modern liberalism, which missed the positive freedoms of individual society. was recognized intervention of the state in the It has also left an important aspect of the law of market economy (Harrison & Harris, 2011). the state in a vacuum or gives it a facilitative Following the 1970s economic crises, neoliberalism role to entrepreneurs. This state observatory role had emerged from the liberal tradition, as a counter- of neoliberalism, leads individual capitalists to Journal of International Politics V2 ● I3 ● 2020 30 The World from Neo-Liberal Globalization to Neo-Populist Ethno-Nationalism: From the Law of Nature to the Law of Nurture monopolize the socioeconomic and political liberalism. In the twenty century, classical liberalism activities as the expense of the mass or recognizing was replaced by modern liberalism, which an individual man to dominate the market battle characterized by the dual role of individual liberty against the interests of the mass of society. to act in free market economy, according to their interests (natural law) and state intervention in Within this context of social cohesion provided the economy (The law of the state). The 21st by market transactions rather than by political, century marked the period of neoliberalism and cultural, or religious agreement or belief, we can globalization, which orchestrated on the dogma however see that there is one political ideology of ‘market law’ only over socioeconomic and above all which currently stands out as dominant. political aspects through ‘rollout’ the role of the By promoting the individual and the global free state in these aspects (Heikki, 2014, p.734-38). market; it undermines all the social institutions and connections, weakened the sense of national In broad-spectrum, since 1945, the Western world identity, eroded state sovereignty, resulted ineq- had lived with a form of capitalism known as uality, high unemployment, socioeconomic and the ‘Keynesian Welfare State’ (KWS). The political crises (Anderson, 2015, p.1-12). KWS was favored on the synergy of a market The other massive dysfunctional economic economy and government intervention. The sector is “the fossil fuel industry: oil, coal, and former accepted the natural rights of individuals gas. This is bit by bit bringing crisis and instability to act freely in the market economy through the of a different sort, through disrupting the global guarantee of the negative freedoms of individuals. climate system, which is already having awful The later allowed the government intervention and expensive consequences throughout much in the form of regional policy development, of the world”. This weakness of neoliberalism government ownership- nationalized railways, stems mainly from its persistent unwillingness welfare benefits-unemployment benefit, employment to correct its own errors and then generally fails and trade union rights, and universal public to correct or eliminate these, leading to severe services-health and education services to instability for the economic system as a whole maintain the positive freedom of the society (Ibid). As a result, over the past thirty years, (King, 1987: 9; Anderson, 2015, p.3; Friedman, neoliberalism has resulted in profound social, 1962, p.63). cultural, political or economic crisis, particularly In line with this logic, the famous economist in developing countries. This neoliberal pattern Frederick Hayek (1944) documented that of crisis, has resulted in the rise of ‘all are in neoliberalism has been emerged in 1970s, battle against all ‘doctrine known as neo- through the rollback of the KWS and then by populism, in 2010 (O'Donnell, 2018, p.2-12). reviving the classical liberalism in extreme In doing so, this paper assesses the individual manner. On the one hand, following the crises market law oriented doctrine of neoliberalism from of KWS when combined with the 1973 alpha to omega. Next determines the conflictual multiplying of oil prices and the breakdown of dogma of neo-populism law of identity and its the international system of fixed exchange threats. Then it searches the missing laws on both rates” (Anderson,2015, p.3), neoliberalism had neo-neo (laws of the market and the law of identity) emerged by rejecting the Keynesianism policies as a remedy for our problems. In the end, it of government expenditure on the public sector; provides a concluding remark. The method of the and a wish to expand the scope for market study is mainly depending on the comparative and forces to operate, including internally within the the documentary qualitative approach. The analyses remaining public sector and internationally in of documentary sources include semi-systematic the global finance system (Anderson, 2015, p.2- literature review and discourse analyses of the 8; Hayek, 1944, p.94-98). previous scholarly work and international organizations statistical reports. On the other hand, neoliberalism becomes a hegemonic ideology in 1990s, through a radical THE CROSS ROAD DEVELOPMENT AND CROSS revival of classical liberalism. However, SECTORIAL CRISIS OF NEOLIBERALISM neoliberalism did not share all elements of classical liberalism rather it used some of its The Rhetorical Advent of Neoliberalism and rhetoric on individual natural rights. That the Market Law means, classical liberalism believed on the The development of liberal ‘free market economic natural rights of individuals. They view human law’ was traced back to the 19th century classical beings as rationally self-interested creatures, 31 Journal of International Politics V2 ● I3 ● 2020 The World from Neo-Liberal Globalization to Neo-Populist Ethno-Nationalism: From the Law of Nature to the Law of Nurture which have a pronounced capacity for self- Empirics and Cross Sectorial Crisis of the reliance whereas society is therefore seen to be Neoliberal Market law atomistic, composed of a collection of largely The proponents of neoliberalism
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