Episode 3.7: Reports of Neoliberalism’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated – Martijn Konings

Interviewer: RAFAEL KHACHATURIAN. Ever since Marx himself, Marxists have anticipated the day of capitalism’s comeuppance, when its crisis-inducing shortcomings would be laid squarely at its door and people would reject it for a system with more humane tradeoffs. Political economist and social theorist MARTIJN KONINGS cautions that that day has not yet arrived. Even “neoliberalism” – a general rubrick for the ideas and practices that have expanded the scope of the market while loosening the regulations that mitigate its failures – will not be banished anytime soon. In is discussion with political theorist Rafael Khachaturian, he describes the institutional changes that have entrenched neoliberal policies, but also its inherent political appeal as an ideology, with its promise of freedom from corrupt government control and its savvy way of blaming capitalism’s crises on the very measures taken to rescue it from collapse. This will allow it to survive the COVID pandemic largely intact, notwithstanding shifts in public opinion toward greater intervention in the economy.