What is Neoliberalism?

Neoliberalism can be understood as an ideology that emerged out of the end of the Cold War, marked by the Washington Consensus. The ideology originates from US domestic and foreign policy, and promotes “laissez-faire economics” and “minimal state intervention”. These two central guidelines are justified by the belief that free markets are self-regulating, efficient and able to ensure sustained human prosperity. By virtue of the former, neoliberalism thereby prescribes representative democracy and capitalism as the central catalyst for development. Its principles have since been adopted by nearly every country in the world, which followed the political, economic and ideological footsteps of the United States after its emergence as the unipolar hegemonic power following 1989. With that said, neoliberalism has since entered a state of turmoil - and possibly decline. This has been marked by the gulf wars, the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the rise of US protectionism, and global isolationism.