michael a. lebowitz wrote:
Speaking of "neoliberalism," I'm coming around to thinking there
should be a moratorium on that word. It's really squishy, kind like
"globalization." What is it being counterposed against? Import
substitution? Petty commodity production? Soviet-style socialism? Is
any of those a model that we should be struggling for? It seems to
function as one of those empty signifiers that can unite different
tendencies, the way populism uses The People, without getting bogged
down in specifics, which always cause trouble.
Um, was that your answer? Kind of avoids the point, don't you think?
But, in a familiar way--- like, 'there should be a moratorium on the
word, capitalism--- one of those empty signifiers that unites
different tendencies (even, shudder, "soviet-style socialism").'
Right, comrade, let's be sure to work out the specifics of our
alternative before we use such a squishy term.
Outside the English-speaking nations, it seems what's commonly called
neoliberal is often simply called liberal, as in "la gauche
antilibérale," "Países antiliberales encabezan crecimiento económico,"
etc. Personally, I prefer that usage, for it forces people to think
about what liberalism is, what socialism is, and the difference
between liberalism (of which social democracy is a variety) and
socialism, though I doubt that the usage will catch on in English.
--
Yoshie
