Neoliberalism and development

Neoliberalism is a slippery term, applied to a variety of processes and usually in relation to rich-country economies as a term of opprobrium. It becomes even more problematic applied to poorer countries, where an implied pre-neoliberal Keynesian heyday is more conspicuously absent. The chapter identifies eight markers of change - trade openness, foreign direct investment, financial openness, government final consumption expenditure, government debt, government education spending, income inequality and gross fixed capital formation - to provide the basis for an empirical evaluation. Few developing countries, most of these in Eastern Europe, can be reckoned to have neoliberalized according to most of the criteria. The blanket term of neoliberalism therefore fails to capture the complexity of change, while few of the markers can be considered intrinsically good or bad. An oppositional politics is therefore ill-served by the sweeping designation and the opprobrium it implies.