University of Bath PHD The Fantasy of Neoliberalism Discursive Representations of the Left's Submission to Contemporary Capitalist Ideology Bennett, Stuart Award date: 2020 Awarding institution: University of Bath Link to publication Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 30. Sep. 2021 The Fantasy of Neoliberalism: Discursive Representations of the Left’s Submission to Contemporary Capitalist Ideology Stuart Bennett A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Bath Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies August 2019 i Copyright Notice Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rests with the author and copyright of any previously published materials included may rest with third parties. A copy of this thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it understands that they must not copy it or use material from it except as licensed, permitted by law or with the consent of the author or other copyright owners, as applicable Declaration of Any Previous Submission of the Work The material presented here for examination for the award of a higher degree by research has not been incorporated into a submission for another degree ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... vi Abstract .......................................................................................................................... vii List of Abbreviations ........................................................................................................ viii Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 i. Why (continue to) study neoliberalism? The ravages of contemporary capitalism .................. 1 ii. Why Lacano-Marxism? .............................................................................................................. 3 iii. The pervasiveness of capitalism ................................................................................................ 4 iv. The perverse role of enjoyment ................................................................................................ 5 v. The importance of fantasy ........................................................................................................ 6 vi. Linking Lacan and Marx: the necessity of a Lacanian anti-capitalism ....................................... 7 vii. Enter Žižek ............................................................................................................................ 9 viii. Thesis synopsis .................................................................................................................... 10 ix. Thesis structure ....................................................................................................................... 11 1. Theoretical perspectives and foundations – establishing the research questions ......... 13 i. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 13 ii. False consciousness as the traditional unifying critique of ideology ...................................... 13 iii. Žižek: standing in opposition to tradition ............................................................................... 16 iv. Žižek, Lacan and the ideological fantasy ................................................................................. 18 v. Shortcomings in Žižek’s thesis ................................................................................................. 21 vi. Historiography of neoliberal capitalism: neoliberalism as economics .................................... 24 vii. Historiography of neoliberalism: neoliberalism as governmentality .................................. 26 viii. Historiography of neoliberalism: neoliberalism as laW ....................................................... 30 ix. Seeking complementarities in the literature through mediation of Žižek .............................. 31 x. Concluding remarks ................................................................................................................. 33 2. Establishing the case studies: constructing a study of neoliberalism as an ideology ..... 36 i. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 36 ii. Allende’s Chile ......................................................................................................................... 37 iii. The coup .................................................................................................................................. 39 iv. Pinochet’s Chile ....................................................................................................................... 42 v. UK politics, 1970-1999 ............................................................................................................ 45 vi. The British Left ........................................................................................................................ 48 vii. The Economist ..................................................................................................................... 52 viii. Concluding remarks ............................................................................................................ 54 3. Research design and methodology .............................................................................. 56 iii i. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 56 ii. Uncovering the neoliberal fantasy .......................................................................................... 56 iii. Ontological and Epistemological Considerations .................................................................... 59 iv. Knowledge production within an anti-positivist frameWork ................................................... 61 v. Research strategies: quantitative versus qualitative study; subsumption versus articulation62 vi. Methods of analysis: the minefield of discourse analyses ...................................................... 65 vii. Source analysis .................................................................................................................... 68 viii. Concluding remarks ............................................................................................................ 70 4. The Economist: the changing narratives of the Right and the entrenchment of neoliberal ideology .......................................................................................................................... 71 i. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 71 ii. 1970-1971: pre-neoliberal capitalist discourse at the height of social democracy; the 1970 Chilean election ............................................................................................................................... 71 iii. 1973: the discourse of pre-neoliberal capitalist ideology shines through; the run up to the 9/11 coup ......................................................................................................................................... 73 iv. 1973-74: the immediate change in capitalist ideology; the changing conceptualisations of the state by the Right in the Wake of the coup ...................................................................................... 74 v. 1979-80: the embedding of neoliberal ideology and its expansion on home shores; Thatcher’s first electoral victory ...................................................................................................... 76 vi. 1984-85: neoliberalism asserts itself; the miners’ strike ........................................................ 79 vii. 1990-91: closing in on victory; the coterminous ends of Pinochet, Thatcher and the Cold War 83 viii. 1998-99: neoliberal retrospection; looking back in the Wake of Pinochet’s indictment .... 86 ix. Concluding remarks ................................................................................................................. 89 5. The state, governance and governmentality ................................................................ 92 i. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 92 ii. 1970-1971: the