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Abstract

The governing ideology of both the global and most national economic policy regimes today is normally described as ‘neoliberal’. By this is meant primarily a reliance on ‘the market’ as the main mechanism of socioeconomic governance, with government intervention being withdrawn to its basic role in a capitalist economy of supporting the market regime itself. Such a generalization, however, can be challenged as too sweeping. Several authors have pointed out the considerable diversity of approaches that can be and are called ‘neoliberal’.1 Moreover, the extreme libertarian wing of neoliberal thinkers would argue that the state is not even necessary to the maintenance of the market, as left to themselves free human individuals would construct markets.