"Neoliberal 2000s" = less liberalisation and freedom + more government expansion and repression
Photo by Samuel Schroth via Unsplash.
In the liberal daily and regional newspaper Blekinge Laens Tidning (BLT), Mattias Svensson who is one of the main (neo)liberal opinion-makers in Sweden wrote in his 2018 article that:
States are making more wars, monitoring more, spending more and regulating more – yet all problems are blamed on liberalism.
Svensson’s articles about liberalism are often interesting regarding discussions about overall global development concerning trade, governance and institutions. In several articles since 2015, Svensson has written about the period of the 1990s-2020s claiming among other things that the public debate is often “stuck in the 1990s way of reasoning” and by referring to different ideological opionins against globalization, liberalization, privatization, individualism and personal freedom.
2000s optimism vs 2010s pessimism?
According to Svensson, the social debate globally is “polarized between two camps”. In his opinion, the first camp tries to hold on to the optimism of 1990s and 2000s speaks hopefully of things getting better and better in life thanks to global trade, democratization, science, and increased freedom (for example, Anne Appelbaum and liberal political parties). While the second camp has noted several problems with society's current development and says “Look here what your naive liberalism, your faith in the future and your free markets have led to!” (for example, Yoram Hazony and far-right parties).
Svensson argues that “both of these groups have failed to understand what happened in the 21st century” - the war on terror, the financial crisis, and the growing welfare debt:
They have all contributed to the "return of the big state" and to the exclusion of liberalism's personal and economic freedom.
Wars, debts and Brussels
Svensson makes several examples and empirical grounds for his arguments about the development during the 2000s. For the start, he writes that the two American-led invasion wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have, among other things, led to 370,000 deaths in war-related conflicts, of which 200,000 civilians while around 10 million Afghans, Iraqis and Pakistanis fled their homes and reduced security. He writes that these wars were the most expensive in US history and according to Brown University, are estimated too a coof around 4.8 trillion dollars, most of them in pledges and debts that are not expected to be paid until 2053.
Regarding “The Global War on Terror”, Svensson also takes up the fact that the EU took more than 200 different measures against terrorism between 2001 and 2013 leading to border controls being militarized and “to build walls instead of tearing them down. Svensson takes up that the most extreme expansion of power was the CIA's prison camps, which reintroduced torture and imprisonment without trial assisted by 21 European countries, including Sweden.
When it comes to the financial crisis of 2007-08 and its aftermath, Svensson writes that a popular myth is that “the crisis arose in free, unregulated markets, and that extensive government intervention meant that the crisis was managed”. He refers to actions made by the contemporary US president George W Bush Jr who made decisions such as lowering payment requirements in order to politically facilitate that minority groups would also be able to borrow for their own home (cheap credits).
Bush Jr also made it easier for semi-state mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to spread the no-demand loans to the rest of the American housing market. His management of the crisis resulted in greater government stimulus, mainly via the central banks' low and negative interest rates and the purchase of bonds and other assets (quantitative easing).
Svensson writes that the financial stimuli had a limited effect on the economy, but also led to increased indebtedness and above all, “socialism for the rich” style of policies since the very richest benefited to own the assets whose prices have been kept up. During the 2000s, the world's indebtedness almost tripled.
How liberalism should shape the future development
In overall, Svensson concludes that the states’ power worldwide increased in a number of policy areas during the 21st century. This development has led to higher spending, greater debt and reduced personal and financial freedom. When it comes to the future of liberalism and liberal politics, Svensson made the following conclusions and proposals:
The problems the West is experiencing with growing divides, increased mistrust and failing productivity are likely not due to free markets, but rather to government restrictions and interventions. Popular power holders in the middle ground of politics made such interventionist and restrictionist policies, both conservatives and social democrats.
The populists do not represent a break with, but a continuation of, the anti-liberal trend of the 21st century. Look at Donald Trump, who loves border barriers, tariffs, indebtedness and torture. He is a continuation of the state's expansion with extra everything.
Liberalism for the 21st century must find a strategy to roll back the big state. The war makes us insecure, the surveillance makes us paranoid and the welfare state is too big to fulfill all its promises. The state cannot and should not take care of banks and rich people, they must be able to fend for themselves. Liberalism in all its dimensions is needed to create security, hope and faith in the future.
Svensson's writings are often based on his book “Det stora statens återkomst” (The return of the big state) which so far is only available in Swedish despite its global focus. To be honest, the 2000s did have many developments that increased peace, progress, and prosperity such as the EU enlargement with new member states, trade cooperation and regional agreements in Africa, and peacekeeping operations as in Liberia and Kosovo. However, as Svensson points out, the 2000s were not so liberal, nor neo-liberal as many believe.
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