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Keynesianism
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Political Philosophy – Neoliberalism
In this course, Dr Matt Dawson (University of Glasgow) explores the concept of neoliberalism in political philosophy and government policy up to the present day. In the first module, we put neoliberalism in context by first discussing its predecessor, Keynesianism, before turning in the second module to discuss the origins of neoliberalism and the work of theorists such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Freedman. In the third module, we discuss what neoliberalism has to say about the state and the economy, before turning in the fourth module to discuss what neoliberalism has to say about individuals. In the fifth module, we discuss how neoliberalism was practically implemented by governments in the US and the UK, differentiating between the vanguard neoliberalism of 1979-92 and the social neoliberalism of 1992-2007. In the sixth module, we explore a series of critiques of the neoliberal project. Then, in the seventh and final module, we discuss whether we have now moved away from neoliberalism, drawing on a series of recent complicating events (including the economic crisis of 2008, the election of populist governments such as that led by Donald Trump in America and the COVID-19 pandemic) to inform our discussion. This course is particularly relevant to students interested in the US Politics, UK Politics, and Core Political Ideas sections of the AQA and Edexcel A Level Politics specifications.
Keynesianism
In this module we put neoliberalism in context by first discussing its predecessor, Keynesianism, focusing in particular on: (i) the historical context for Keynesianism; (ii) the key ideas and objectives of Keynesianism; (iii) the reasons for the loss of faith in Keynesianism and the post-war consensus during the 1970s; (iv) the move to neoliberalism in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
My name is Matt Dawson.
00:00:05I'm a lecturer in sociology at the University of Glasgow,
00:00:06and this lecture is going to be on neo liberalism.
00:00:09And to start by talking about neoliberalism,
00:00:11I want to start by talking about what came before it.
00:00:13Since whenever we're talking about a political ideas such as neoliberalism,
00:00:16it's inevitable that we have to reckon with what came before it.
00:00:19Because ultimately,
00:00:22what neoliberalism is going to be shaped by what it
00:00:23was reacting against and as we're going to see,
00:00:26that's particularly significant with neoliberalism
00:00:28and what neoliberalism was reacting against Keynesianism.
00:00:31So Keynesianism, as the name gives away.
00:00:34Influenced by the British economist John Maynard, Keyes
00:00:36emerged initially in response to the economic
00:00:39crisis of late 19 twenties and thirties,
00:00:42but became particularly dominant after World War Two.
00:00:44Central to Keynesianism is the notion of the state as a spender.
00:00:48The spender of last resort is sometimes called i e.
00:00:51The notion around Keynesianism was the idea that
00:00:55the state should be interventionist in the economy,
00:00:56should be spending money.
00:00:59Initially, this was justified as a response to the crisis.
00:01:00State spends money by building things so on and hiring people to do.
00:01:03It improves the economy because people spend the money, et cetera.
00:01:06But over time it came to be linked to
00:01:09the notion of a state as a fundamental economic actor
00:01:11and an economic actor driven by the desire to not just increase
00:01:15the wealth and society but also achieve a more equal society.
00:01:19One of the things that essentially this was nationalisation.
00:01:22So key resources for society, education, healthcare, communications, water,
00:01:25energy, so on.
00:01:32These are all nationalised industries.
00:01:33That would be one company run by the state that would run these key resources
00:01:35partly to fund this and to fund other things we'll talk about later on.
00:01:40It was society with a significant levels of taxation,
00:01:43so quite often taxation on income and companies in particular.
00:01:46So it wasn't uncommon for marginal tax rates.
00:01:50The tax rates for the highest earners to approach 90% on some of their income
00:01:53and for companies to have attacks on the world stage generate.
00:01:57And this is partly to pay for these forms of state spending,
00:02:00but also to firms that equality mentioned earlier.
00:02:03This equality was also achieved for the expansion of welfare states,
00:02:06so the expansion of payment for unemployment for sick pay,
00:02:09but also the things that come with that, such as health care, et cetera,
00:02:13and the state that was committed to full employment.
00:02:16So although not literally every person had a job, the idea is that, effectively,
00:02:19everyone should have a job.
00:02:24Unemployment should run around 2% or so on,
00:02:25and this should be the state's interest to ensure people have these jobs
00:02:28within communism. Trade unions are often given central roles.
00:02:32They sometimes had roles in the actual running companies,
00:02:35so this could be sitting on boards and so on, or have
00:02:38roles written into companies in terms of trade.
00:02:42Unions with support is required to do X y Z
00:02:45and the government intervened in things like wage control.
00:02:48So partly because so much of the economy was
00:02:50run by the government that had a direct say in
00:02:53what wages people learned for different industries and sought
00:02:56to use that to achieve some of its goals.
00:02:58Much like we see with neoliberalism,
00:03:02Keynesianism has had a very clear idea of
00:03:04individuals what individuals are what they should expect,
00:03:06what their requirements are, and Kingston is, um, at hearts.
00:03:09These individuals is tied into their national communities.
00:03:12They are part of countries and local communities, which, as a result,
00:03:15gives them certain obligations to have an obligation
00:03:20to work its society of full employment.
00:03:23They have an obligation to take up that job
00:03:25and have an obligation to pay the taxes because, as we've seen,
00:03:27the taxation that funds a lot to spend in the
00:03:30state was doing for its nationalised industries and welfare states,
00:03:32etcetera.
00:03:34But internal,
00:03:36these individuals also entitled to certain things they are
00:03:36entitled to expect the state to provide resources.
00:03:40So to provide those things through the welfare state,
00:03:43they're entitled to a belief in certain resources become available, for example,
00:03:46housing,
00:03:50and also the state is there to support them and
00:03:51to achieve some sort of notion of an equal,
00:03:53better society.
00:03:57Kingston is, um, as I mentioned,
00:03:59becomes dominant after World War two and is really dominant around the
00:04:00rest of the world to the start of the 19 seventies.
00:04:03At that point, there's an economic crisis.
00:04:06Price of a price of oil grows quite substantially in this period,
00:04:08and this leads to a broader recession.
00:04:12It's at this point that there's a crisis in Keynesianism,
00:04:14where there's a belief that somehow communism can't solve the crisis
00:04:17that most of the Western markets experience at this point.
00:04:21And it's at this point that neo liberalism comes into being, so I mean,
00:04:24I want to talk about where neoliberalism came from.
00:04:28
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Dawson, M. (2022, August 25). Political Philosophy – Neoliberalism - Keynesianism [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/political-philosophy-neoliberalism
MLA style
Dawson, M. "Political Philosophy – Neoliberalism – Keynesianism." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 25 Aug 2022, https://massolit.io/courses/political-philosophy-neoliberalism