Neoliberalism generalizes the economic form across the entire social field, unlike classical liberalism.
Evidence
How far can the market become the figure and the mode of rationality for state and society, the political and the social? This question did not contour the ambition of liberalism either as an economic or a political doctrine; the former sought only to free the economic subject, the latter to free the political and civil subject. Neither raised the market itself to a principle of all life or of government. 31 The distinctiveness of neoliberalism, for Foucault, is that it “generalizes the economic form of the market” or “generalizes the ‘enterprise’ form within the social body,” producing an “economization of the entire social field.” — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 105
Categorization
- DEFINE: Establishes the core distinction: liberalism frees economic and political subjects, while neoliberalism raises the market to a principle of all life and government.
- XREF: Connects to Foucault’s Birth of Biopolitics lectures and the broader scholarship distinguishing liberalism from neoliberalism. — connects to: Neoliberalism extends market logic to regulate all human behavior. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 32; Neoliberalism generalizes the enterprise form across the entire social body — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at…, 823; Neo-liberal society above the threshold makes every individual an enterprise for himself. — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at…, 1081 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Neoliberalism is a governing rationality that frames all life in market terms
#corroborates(0.92) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 357 - Neoliberalism makes the enterprise the formative power of society, not merely an economic policy.
#expands(0.90) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 120 - The economy functions as model, object, and project of neoliberal state rationality.
#corroborates(0.88) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 107 - Neoliberalism is a normative mode of reason, not merely an economic policy set
#corroborates(0.85) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 80 - Neoliberalism redefined human being itself as human capital.
#exemplifies(0.82) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 134 - Capitalism becomes a whole form of social life through the superstructures, not just production.
#corroborates(0.80) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 526