Neo Liberalism

Neo liberalism is a political ideology which advocates economic liberalization and decreasing the role of the public sector in modern society. Its supporters also argue for free trade and deregulation of the economy. The three most significant developments in the neo liberalist era were; internationalization of trade and finance, increasing power of the transnational corporation and enhanced role of economic institutions like the IMF, WB and the WTO. It has characteristics such as privatization of public enterprises, tax cuts and expansion of the international market. Neo liberalists want minimal state intervention where the focus is on a free market. Equality for them, is restricted to civil and political equality. They are advocates of negative liberty and meritocracy. They differ from Libertarianism in the sense that libertarianism argues for individual freedom of speech and action in a very general way. They want to maximize individual liberty by minimizing the government’s role. Neo liberalists however, concentrate more specifically on economic issues. Libertarians have a simple stance; one can make decisions for him or herself regarding any issue as long as they do not infringe upon someone else’s right to do the same. One of the key therorists for this ideology, Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992) disagreed with Keynes and stated that, "The only chance to build a decent world is to improve the general level of wealth via the activities of free markets". For him, more power should be given to the private sector so that more wealth can be generated in the economy with minimal market impurities. Hayek, talked about three main issues. He was against taxation for redistribution. He wanted to end the attention given to specific groups and wanted freedom to pursue goals. His argument was that capitalism and democracy conflict with one another. For him, democracy meant that the government would be more worried about getting votes and protecting special interest