Liberalism and Neoliberalism: Difference Between Them

Liberalism refers to neo-classical liberalization which appeared in the works of Locke, Smith and Ricardo. It promoted Laissez-Faire (the French word for “Let one do what they want to”) and emphasized on free markets. Although neoliberalism originates from liberalisation and apparently withholds all its objectives, or has been subjected to several scholarly debates. Both of these include privatisation, less state interference, globalisation and so on. However, neoliberalism denotes a far-reaching, radical application of free markets. It just pays lip-service to classical liberalism, mostly because it is imposed on the third-world developing countries in the Global South by advanced countries in the Global North through the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organisation (WTO) which eventually results in neo-colonialism (which we will discuss later). Application of neoliberal policies further results in internal liberalisation whereby Big Pharma and Oil Corporations get away with paying as little taxes as possible. Hence, it increases inequality. For instance, in India, when in 1991, neoliberal economic policies were adopted, the rate of rural employment and investment on agriculture reduced drastically whereas big corporations like Information Technology (IT) sectors emerged.

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