The End of Neoliberalism?

In the wake of the economic “meltdown†of 2008, there arose considerable public debate across the planet over the fates and futures of neoliberalism. Had it reached its “natural†end? What, historically, was likely to become of “it†? How might the crisis in the Euro-American economies of the period transform the relationship between economy and the state? This article addresses these questions. It argues against treating neoliberalism as a common noun, a fully formed, self-sustaining ideological project and makes the case that its adjectival and adverbial capillaries alive, well, and, if in complicated ways, central to the unfolding history of contemporary capitalism. Finally, the article offers a reflection on the ways in which twenty-first-century states have become integral to the workings of finance capital, with important consequences for the conception of political economy.