The Western Ideology1

Abstract

Economic liberalism in varied forms has been central to the dominant interpretation of the western ideology and liberal modernity. The western ideology is defined as the doctrines which have legitimated and promoted the institutions of liberal modernity in the last two hundred years. This essay explores political conditions, such as the hegemony exercised for long periods by first Britain and then the United States, which made this possible. It examines the different strands which makes up economic liberalism, focusing on the emergence of neo-liberalism as the dominant form of economic liberalism from the 1980s onwards, and particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 which removed a major ideological and political competitor. It asks whether these political conditions can be sustained.