Economics and Populism: Neoliberalism

In this entry, I will analyze neoliberal policies and how they have been popularized through the mass media – with a particular focus on market triumphalism. This is an important issue in contemporary times as neoliberal policies have led to an increase in economic inequality. However, public discourse has argued that these policies are beneficial to the economy and workers. The first section will describe the historical trajectory that shaped neoliberal policies. In the second section, I will trace the introduction of neoliberal policies in India in the 1990s and how English newspapers popularized them. In section “Sandel’s Critique of Market Triumphalism in America”, I will discuss the popularity of market triumphalism through neoliberal policies in the USA and Michael Sandel’s (What money can’t buy: the moral limits of markets. Penguin, London, 2012) influential critique of it.