Neoliberalism, Democracy, and Rights: Towards a Critique of Neoliberal Reason

The book sheds light on the forms of neoliberalism’s political rationality by highlighting the theoretical foundations upon which they are built. It relies on Foucault’s account of neoliberal reason in terms of a governmental rationality encompassing all aspects of human life, as well as Critical Theory’s methodology. The book discloses the tensions and antinomies between the concepts neoliberalism resorts to for its own moral and theoretical justification and the historical forms of its realization. By combining the rigor of the normative principles of political philosophy with contemporary historical material, the book shows how neoliberalism realizes itself by negating liberty in its own name, undermining democracy, and annulling rights via their transformation into the morals of the new global market. The core argument permeating the book is that crises are the very condition of neoliberalism’s existence. It states that, paradoxically enough, neoliberalism is facing the crises it itself produces by touching off new ones. The book will appeal to students, scholars, and researchers of political science in general, and political theory, political philosophy, and political history in particular, interested in a better understanding of neoliberalism, democracy, and rights. Contents Chapter 1: Introduction Bibliography Chapter 2: Liberalism, Classical and New: Continuity or Rupture? 1 On Method 2 The Invisible Hand of the Market: An Economy Without God and Sovereign 3 The Road to Serfdom: Freedom Versus Equality 4 Hayek’s Neoliberal State: Planning Against Plans and in Favor of Competition 4.1 Distributive Justice and the Welfare State Bibliography Chapter 3: Neoliberal State and Democracy 1 The Longevity of Neoliberalism: Rethinking the Relationship Between State and Economy 2 “Constitutionalizing” Neoliberalism: Nomocracy Versus Democracy 3 The End of Europe as the End of the Enlightenment Project 3.1 Toward a Postnational Constellation: Kant and Habermas 3.2 Democratization as the Re-foundation of Europe 3.3 The Neoliberal “Euthanasia” of Democracy Bibliography Chapter 4: Neoliberalism, Crisis, and the State of Exception 1 From Theory to Practice: Technologies of Neoliberal Governance 2 Visible and “Invisible Leviathan:” Excursus to Carl Schmitt 2.1 A Permanent State of Exception? 2.2 The Concept of Crisis in the Philosophy of History 3 State and Globalization: The Relevance of N. Poulantzas Bibliography Chapter 5: The Right to Have Rights 1 Depriving a Place in the World: Arendt’s Loss of Worldliness and Kant’s Sensus Communis 2 The “Mass Man” of Totalitarianism and the Domination of Sensus Privatus 3 The “Superfluous” and the “Invisible:” Rights of Man as Rights of Citizen 4 We and the “Others”: Inclusive Citizenship and Cosmopolitan Right 4.1 The Right of Hospitality: Cosmopolitan Right in I. Kant 4.2 Toward a Postnational Solidarity 4.3 Demos Above the Nation: Democratic Voices and “Iterations” Bibliography Chapter 6: Conclusion: Neoliberalism and Rights: The Superfluous Lives 1 Cancelling Freedom in Its Own Name 2 The Market and the State 3 Freedom, Equality, Property, and Security: The End of Rights? 4 From Rights to the New Morals of the Market Bibliography Chapter 7: Addendum 1 Covid-19: A Political Virus 2 Philosophy About the Virus 3 The Coronavirus and the Heterogeneity of Ends 4 “We Stay at Home” or the Paradoxes of Solidarity 5 And Then What? Bibliography Index