David Harvey: The Farce of Neoliberalism

By Hernan B Aliaga

Last dispatch from Berlin of our philosopher at large. And this time one does not need to hold a sociolgy degree from La Sorbonneto realise we are now experiencing -on multiple fronts- the long lasting failures of a system that been deteriorating not only the fabric of our societies but also the place of work and the natural habitat.The book is A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey

What if I told you that while they scare us with the ghost of a government that I could take your house or your car fifty years ago come to us expropriating common property, public services, land and rights, converting transport, education, health, and even the water in merchandise?

In this book, David Harvey argues that neoliberalism is much more than just a set of economic policies: it’s in fact a political class project designed to restore and strengthen the power of the economic elites after the crisis of Keynesian capitalism in the 70s.

In theory, neoliberalism holds that human well-being improves when individual freedoms and entrepreneurial initiatives are liberated within a framework of private ownership and a free market. But that’s just the facade: in practice, their true goal has been to concentrate power and wealth in the hands of an economic elite.

Harvey will say that neoliberalism can be understood at three levels, :

As Ideology:
Promotes the idea that each person is responsible for themselves, exalting the entrepreneur and delegitimising the State, except to protect private property and ensure the “discipline” of the market. It presents the market as something “natural”, hiding that in fact it is a politically driven and violently erected system.

As economic and political practice:
It means mass privatization, deregulation, social cuts, attack on trade unions and labor flexibility.

As a class project:

Neoliberalism is a conscious strategy of the financial elite to regain its power after the fall of profits in the 1970s. This has generated a regressive redistribution of wealth concentrating in the richest 1% and transforming managerial capitalism into a financial and speculative enterprise.

“…It presents the market as something “natural”, hiding that in fact it is a politically driven and violently erected system.”

The core strategies of neoliberalism:

Accumulation by dispossession:
Common goods, lands, and rights are expropriated; public spaces, education, health, water, and even affections are privatized, turning them into commodities.

Financialisation:
Financial capital dominates, using debt as a tool ofsocial control —mortgages, credit cards, public debt—trapping millions in cycles of dependency.

Depoliticisation and technocratisation:
Profound political decisions are disguised as “technical” or “objectively” neutral, as a sort of unquestionable truth, neutralising democratic debate and social resistance.

Through the “structural reforms” imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other organizations, in regions like Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe, not only have economies been transformed, operating in some cases as “islands of efficiency,” but a profound breakdown of the social fabric has also occurred. What it has caused:

• Precarious employment and a reduction in labor rights.

• A brutal increase in inequality.

• Worsenring ecological, urban, and political crises.

• The disintegration of social and collective bonds.

Neoliberalism not only destroys economies but the very foundation of social coexistence. To fail to question this logic is to resign the future to a system that prioritises the privilege of one class and profit over justice, freedom and life itself.

Hernán B. Aliaga is a writer and a social philosopher. He is a former lecturer at Pontificia Universidad Católica, Peru. He has been educated between Lima and Berlin where he now lives and is working on his doctoral thesis on social theory. He is an active commentator on social media. This is the first of a series of articles on social philosophy for Perro Negro in English. Most have already posted in Spanish in his Instagram page. You can also follow him on https://hernanbaliaga.substack.com/ and TikTok