NEOLIBERALISM AND ITS CRITICS
 
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
 WINTER 2012
 
PROFESSOR BERNARD E. HARCOURT
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
 
PLSC 42601; LAW 51305
 
FRIDAY FROM 1:40 PM TO 5:00 PM
LAW QUAD CLASSROOM V
 
  COURSE DESCRIPTION
 
What is neoliberal thought, what are neoliberal policies, and what are the major critiques that
have been leveled against neoliberalism? These are the questions we will explore in this course,
focusing both on the primary texts that are generally associated with neoliberalism (e.g., F.A.
Hayek and Milton Friedman), as well as the most important critical attacks on neoliberalism (e.g.
David Harvey, Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, Wendy Brown, James Ferguson, etc.) The term
neoliberalism is often misunderstood, although it is nothing more than a neologism that
combines the term “neo” (which means the revival of an older thing) with the term “liberalism”
(which refers to early liberal economic thought). In this course, we will study the concept in
depth in order to get a firm understanding of its theoretical and practical implications.
 
ADMINISTRATION
The course will be run in the form of a graduate seminar, rather than a lecture course, involving
mostly discussion of the books we are reading. Perhaps a better description would be a reading
group. Students will make 10-minute presentations on the books, but most of the classroom time
will be dedicated to discussion of the readings. There will be an 8-hour take-home examination
at the end of the course. Discussion participation will be included in the final grade.
 January 1, 2012
  
PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE
First Class: Friday, January 6, 2012
I have invited to the University of Chicago, in conjunction with our first class, Dr. Justin Yifu
Lin, the Chief Economist of the World Bank. Dr. Lin is a fascinating scholar who was trained as
an economist at the University of Chicago and, among other things, defected from Taiwan to
mainland China. He is a leading expert on development politics and economics, and will be
delivering the Leonard D. White Memorial Lecture on Friday, January 6, 2012, on
“Demystifying the Chinese Economy.”
I would like to invite you all to his Leonard D. White lecture at 12:00 noon at the International
House, followed by a short reception from 1:10 to 1:30.
Our first class will start slightly delayed at 2:45 pm in Classroom V at the Law School. Dr. Lin
will join us for the first 30 minutes of the class and answer questions and participate in the
discussion. After that, we will launch into further discussion of his work on development
economics (his Marshall Lectures at Cambridge University in 2007) and his new research on the
Chinese economy (his Leonard D. White Lecture at the University of Chicago).
For the first class, please read the following:
Evan Osnos, “Boom Doctor: Can the Chinese Miracle Continue Without Reform?” New Yorker,
October 11, 2010 (available on Chalk and available to New Yorker subscribers at
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/11/101011fa_fact_osnos).
Justin Yifu Lin, “Development and Transition: Idea, Strategy, and Viability,” Marshall Lectures,
Cambridge University, October 31-November 1, 2007 (available on Chalk and here:
http://blogs.worldbank.org/files/developmenttalk/Marshall%20Lectures%20by%20Justin%20Lin
.pdf ).
Justin Yifu Lin, “Demystifying the Chinese Economy,” Text of Speech available at:
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DEC/Resources/84797-1104785060319/598886-
1104852366603/599473-1223731755312/Speech-on-Demystifying-the-Chinese-Economy.pdf
Justin Yifu Lin, “Demystifying the Chinese Economy,” Project Syndicate, December 22, 2011
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/lin5/English
Martin Wolf, “Demystifying the Chinese Economy,” Financial Times, December 4, 2011
(available here: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/5acad17a-1cdf-11e1-a134-
00144feabdc0.html#axzz1iPzw1RZB ).
 January 1, 2012
 
 Second Class: Friday, January 13, 2012
Reading:
David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)
Optional Reading: David Harvey, “Fordism” and “From Fordism to Flexible Accumulation,”
Chapters 8 and 9 in The Condition of Postmodernity (Oxford: Blackwell, 1989)
 
Third Class: Friday, January 20, 2012
Reading:
Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (2007)
 
Fourth Class: This week, we will meet on Wednesday evening, January 25, 2012 at 7 pm
Reading:
Friedrich Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (University of Chicago Press, 1944)
 
Fifth Class: This week, we will meet on Wednesday evening, February 1, 2012 at 7 pm
Reading: Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom (University of Chicago Press, 1962)
Optional Reading: Paul Krugman, “Who Was Milton Friedman?” NYRB February 15, 2007
 
Sixth Class: Friday, February 10, 2012
Reading:
Michel Foucault, Birth of Biopolitics. 1979 Lectures (Palgrave, 2008) January 1, 2012
  
Seventh Class: Friday, February 17, 2012 [Note: this Class will be in Classroom D]
Readings:
Wendy Brown, “American Nightmare: Neoliberalism, Neoconservatism, and De-
Democratization,” Political Theory, Vol. 34, No. 6. (2006), pp. 690-714
Wendy Brown, “Neoliberalism and the End of Liberal Democracy,” in Edgework: Critical
Essays on Knowledge and Politics (Princeton University Press, 2005).
Lisa Duggan, The Twilight of Equality: Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack on
Democracy (Boston: Beacon Press, 2003) (excerpts)
 
Eighth Class: Friday, February 24, 2012
Readings:
Noam Chomsky, Profit Over People: Neoliberalism & Global Order (1999)
Gérard Duménil and Dominique Lévy, The Crisis of Neoliberalism (Harvard 2011) (excerpts)
Neil Brenner and Nik Theodore, “Cities and the Geographies of “Actually Existing
Neoliberalism” Antipode Volume 34, Issue 3, pages 349–379, July 2002
Further reading:
Neil Brenner and Nik Theodore, eds., Spaces of Neoliberalism: Urban Restructuring in North
America and Western Europe (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002)
 
Ninth Class: Friday March 2, 2012
Readings:
James Ferguson, “The Uses of Neoliberalism,” Antipode, 41: 166–184 (2010)
Aihwa Ong, Neoliberalism as Exception (Duke University Press, 2006) (excerpts).
Peter Evans, “Is An Alternative Globalization Possible?” Politics & Society 36(2): 271-305
(2008).
Peter Evans, “Rethinking Neo-Polanyian Optimism: Transnational Politics after the Decline of
Neoliberalism.” Unpublished Post-script to “Is An Alternative Globalization Possible?” (2011)