Neo Liberalism Research Paper

Submitted By 18Lilylake
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Neoliberalism The 21st century anthropologists as well as feminists have set their focus on neo-liberalism as ideas, economic policies and social values that have shown a vital influence on groups, individuals and nations ever since the end of the 19th century. Neoliberalism was seen as a philosophy that was economic and this concept emerged within the European scholars who considered themselves liberal. The reason why this concept became popular was because of the need to avoid economic failure which had occurred in the past, and this failure was blamed on economic policy that was based on classical liberalism. According to Flores-Macias the neoliberal thought varies majorly on a single ended line (laissez-fire) and classical liberalism and this gives the state the opportunity to play an active role in the process (2012, p.55). In her view, there are various theories that have been put forward by scholars based on neoliberal policies and evaluations which have resulted to various kinds of neo-liberalism. She however favored policies of neo-liberalism like privatization and deregulation. The perspective that she seems to follow is on the basis of law of nature. Human beings are social by nature therefore due to this fact the manner in which the society organizes itself is focused on individuals and their freedom of choice. Despite neo-liberalism being considered as propaganda and an ideology, it is viewed as a social order that is new in which income and power of the upper ruling class is re-established. Chile is a country based in South America and occupies a narrow strip which is to the west of the Pacific Ocean. It shares a border with Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Drake Passage. The territory of Chile comprises of islands of the Pacific namely, Juan Fernandez, Desventuradas, Easter Island and Salas y Gomez. Chile has a population of around 16 million people although there has been a decrease in population growth since the late 19th century because of a decline in the birth rate. It has been predicted that by the year 2050 the Chile population will have an estimated 20.2 million occupants. Almost 90 percent of people in Chile live in the urban areas with almost 41 percent of them residing in the Greater Santiago. Chile has been considered as an exception in South America’s difficult and long struggle to defeat economic instability and backwardness (Lind, 2007, p.77). In the 1980’s Milton Friedman who was a conservative economist in the University of Chicago declared that policies that were market driven by the Gen. Augusto Pinochet dictatorship were advantageous to the economy. Neo-liberalism is a term that was first used in South/Latin America. Chile has had three governments that had been elected since the fall of Pinochet in 1990. However, none of the governments including the government that is being socialist-led currently has managed to break the neoliberal economic framework which was instilled by the dictatorship rule (Silva, 2012, p.33).
For decades, the governments that were formed after the dictatorship period were focused on administering an economic boom which started in the early years of dictatorship (Solimano, 2012, p.44). In 1997 there was significant stagnation and the income per capita increased with 0.7 percent annually until 2002, and unemployment was just over 9 percent until 2003. The growth of the export sector of Chile which was their main ‘growth engine’ stagnated. Today, neo-liberalism has been disheartened in Chile and it is reflecting significant losses and decline for the ruling class (Winn, 2004, p.77). This continues even after the Chilean citizens have rejected the neoliberal policies of Milton Friedman including smart tax evasion procedures by members of the business community or class.
According to Flores-Macias impasse and political constraints that have taken place in the past decades have seen relevant contribution to the protests and popular mobilization which related to