The Choice of Civil War: Neoliberal Strategy and the Politics of the Enemy

TURNING CITIZENS INTO ENEMIES, NEOLIBERAL GOVERNMENTS HAMSTRING DEMOCRACY

Margaret Thatcher’s mantra ‘there is no alternative’ was not a statement of historical fact but a strategic objective. She shared with Hayek, Pinochet, Mises, Trump, Bolsonaro, and Macron a commitment to utilizing ideology, constitutional economics, labour discipline, and culture wars, as well as police and military force, to prevent popular resistance from organizing. Whatever their doctrinal differences, they all see the state’s tight control of democracy as the most effective means of defeating egalitarian alternatives.

Neoliberalism persists today thanks to its ability to defeat opponents while deepening social and cultural regression.