A new (fourth) edition of The Companion to Development Studies has recently been published by Routledge (eds. Emil Dauncey, Vandana Desai and Robert B Petter). The book includes my short chapter, ‘Neoliberalism: Different paths within a global project‘, exploring its development and suitable for student reading lists.
Abstract: In the 1970s, accepted economic orthodoxy around ideas of developmentalism and Keynesianism became unstuck in a protracted economic crisis. The belief that governments were inefficient and that the best way to allocate resources was through competitive markets became increasingly popular among economists and governments. In the decades that followed, a radical economic transformation took place and it had profound social and political consequences. This period is often referred to as the neoliberal era. Policy making was centred on markets and prices (of commodities and labour) as the primary way to shape social life. The idea of homo economicus — where economic modelling presumes self-interested and utility maximising individuals — became hegemonic.
