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  • In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West by Wendy Brown
  • Michael Tavel Clarke (bio)
Wendy Brown. In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West. Columbia UP, 2019. Pp. viii, 248. US $25.

Wendy Brown's 2015 book, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution (2015), argues that neoliberalism is a threat to democracy. In its relentless economizing of everything, she suggests, neoliberalism undermines principles that differ from economic ones, including principles of justice, equality, popular sovereignty, and the rule of law. Moreover, Brown contends that neoliberalism reshapes contemporary subjectivity and governance in ways that reinforce finance capital's pervasive economization; neoliberalism encourages us to view the human subject—including ourselves—as a form of capital, undermining the morally autonomous subject essential to democracy. Her new book, In the Ruins of Neoliberalism, extends the ideas of Undoing the Demos but tries to account for political changes that have occurred since its publication—specifically the election of Donald Trump, the emergence of other far-right governments around the world, and the rise of neofascism in Europe.1 To do so, she reevaluates her arguments about the relationship between neoliberalism and politics. [End Page 183]

Brown does not conclude that neofascism today is a direct consequence of neoliberalism's erosion of democracy. She sees too many contradictions between neoliberalism and the rightward turn in contemporary politics. Theories of neoliberalism, for example, directly oppose many components of Trump's campaign rhetoric and politics, including his nationalism, appeals to conservative Christian morality, populist anti-elitism, and willingness to allow state intervention in the economy. Brown concludes that neofascism today is not a direct outcome of neoliberalism but rather a "deformed plant [that] grew from soil fertilized by" neoliberalism (9).

Whether political scientists are pondering the question of neoliberalism's responsibility for neofascism is unclear to me; I am not aware that it is a pressing question outside political science. For those who were not pondering that question, the value of Brown's latest book lies more in its details than its overall argument. The first chapter, for example, demonstrates persuasively that Friedrich Hayek and other neoliberal theorists directly attacked the very concepts of the social and society, thus providing the theoretical basis for contemporary political assaults on government programs of social welfare, justice, and reform. The second chapter reviews the different theoretical foundations of neoliberalism and concludes that all fundamentally oppose democratic governance and endorse minimal government, aiming to replace unpredictable, messy politics with consistent economic laws and business rationality. Neoliberalism's goal is economic stability, growth, and uniformity—and secondarily a pacified populace—but advocates did not anticipate its effects: magnified inequality, plutocracy, and an enraged populace willing to elect neofascist leaders. This chapter is particularly informative and compelling. The third chapter explores the weird alliance between the religious Right and neoliberalism in the United States. Neoliberalism's dismantling of government programs, Brown suggests, throws the responsibility for solving social problems onto families, with the effect of sanctioning traditional Christian and family values—not at all what the neoliberal theorists had in mind. Meanwhile, Trump, who advances neoliberalism's goal of dismantling government, has made political alliances with the Christian Right, who are comfortable with authoritarianism as long as it enforces traditional morality—again, very different from the goals of neoliberals. The fourth chapter analyzes the US Supreme Court decisions that blend neoliberal free market ideals with traditional morality, fostering a "(re)Christianization of the public sphere" (125). The final chapter explores the entanglement of neoliberalism with white male resentment. Trump and his supporters, Brown suggests, seek to restore white male entitlement, and they regard democracy (understood as the increasing equality of women and minorities) as the cause of their waning privilege. [End Page 184]

Much of the material in the book is informative and enlightening, and Brown's basic diagnosis of conditions in the US is compelling. For those with an interest in US politics and the history of neoliberalism, Brown's book will be engaging.

What troubles me about Brown's work, however, is its assumptions about the ordinary citizen and the appropriate method for combating recent challenges to...

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