An empire of commerce, an empire of finance: The U.S. and the rise of neoliberal hegemony in the twentieth century
[Thesis]
;supervisor: Lopez-Alves, Fernando
University of California, Santa Barbara: United States -- California
: 2008
680 pages
Ph.D.
, University of California, Santa Barbara: United States -- California
The primary purpose of this thesis is the analysis of the rise and implementation of neoliberal economic policies within the United States from the late 1970's to the present. Consequently, this thesis undertakes an investigation of how private sector economic influences interact with and dominate the various domestic and foreign policy decisions of the United States throughout the course of the twentieth century. Implicitly this research process required a deeper analysis of how these policies (U.S. domestic and foreign policy) were motivated by private sector, capital accumulation strategies and thus, their subsequent influence over U.S. government policy, in general.Thus, the basic definition of neoliberalism is predicated on the idea that government intervention in the marketplace should be confined to and operate on behalf of, private sector capital. In essence, neoliberalism asserts that government's primary responsibility is to stimulate private sector, entrepreneurial initiatives and create, facilitate and maintain various types of capital accumulation strategies, within the society at large. Other forms of acceptable intervention should also be confined to strengthening legal processes, which seek to protect and define property rights and the contractual obligations which surround these rights, maintaining the legitimacy of the national currency (the U.S. Dollar) and defending the rights of capital within both the U.S. domestic and international arenas. Alternatively, government promotion and maintenance of public welfare provisions are viewed as an inefficient and thus, unprofitable use of government's resources and responsibilities.Unfortunately, as this thesis asserts, this "minimalist" definition of the state's obligations to its citizenry opens the proverbial door to elite, private sector capital and its various influences, counteracting the state's autonomy to create alternative strategies for its citizens which are not influenced, solely, by the needs of private sector capital. Accordingly, the nature of how neoliberalism was both articulated and implemented within the American state involves tracing both the role and the historical evolution of the American state over the twentieth century, to its relationship and interaction with organized capital.