HTH 1002 History of Thought II Spring 2017

1. Homonormativity
HTH 1002 History of Though II
Kara Heitz

2. What is Neoliberalism?

3. What is neoliberalism?
“Neoliberalism is a theory of political economic practices proposing that
human well-being can best be advanced by the maximization of
entrepreneurial freedoms within an institutional framework characterized by
private property rights, individual liberty, unencumbered markets, and free
trade. The role of the state is to create and preserve an institutional
framework appropriate to such practices. The state has to be concerned, for
example, with the quality and integrity of money. It must also set up military,
defense, police, and juridical functions required to secure private property
rights and to support freely functioning markets. Furthermore, if markets do
not exist (in areas such as education, health care, social security, or
environmental pollution), then they must be created, by state action if
necessary. But beyond these tasks the state should not venture.”
(Harvey 22-23)

4. Marx: Why capitalism is bad
“The state abolishes … the distinctions established by
birth, social rank, education, occupation, when it decrees
that birth, rank, education, occupation are non-political
distinctions; when it proclaims, without regard to these
distinctions, that every member of society is an equal
partner in popular sovereignty … But the state, none the
less, allows private property, education, occupation, to
act after their own fashion … and to manifest their
particular nature. Far from abolishing these effective
differences, it only exists so far as they are presupposed
…
Political emancipation certainly represents great
progress. It is not, indeed, the final form of human
emancipation, but it is the final forms of human
emancipation within the framework of the prevailing
social order” (Marx, On the Jewish Question)

5. Homonormativity