On Neoliberalism and Institutions: A Response to Michael Jacobs

In his article in this journal, Michael Jacobs lists the multiple overlapping crises which now affect the world. These include climate change and rising economic inequality. This comment endorses his emphasis on institutions and his call for richer institutional analyses to help develop viable policies to deal with these problems. But, on the other hand, this comment criticises his use of the term ‘neoliberalism’ to identify a major source of our current difficulties. Many ‘neoliberals’ are said to favour market solutions. But the term has become so vague that it is linked to not only economists such as Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek, but also to others who accept some markets in a mixed economy. Opposition to ‘neoliberalism’ then involves a rejection of market reforms in economies such as China and of mixed economies more generally. The word now means so many different things that it has becomes unusable.