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A review by mburnamfink
Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution by Wendy Brown
5.0
There is a specter haunting contemporary politics; a specter called 'neoliberalism.'
In Undoing the Demos, Brown goes full bore for the origins and nature of the current crisis of faith, an ideology which consumes labor, democracy, law, education, and life itself in the quest for every higher profits for a small group of elites. Brown offers a strong definition of neoliberalism, capable adapting to it's protean forms, as the "economizing of spheres and activities" in policy, practice, and rhetoric, and everything which casts life as a matter of competition rather than community or exchange, and takes as it's best model the building of a diverse and exponentially expanding investment portfolio. The ultimate form of neoliberalism is the transformation of human beings, political entities with defined rights who form self-governing communities and live and die, into human capitals, value-increasing portfolios of skills, assets, and social networks, who are combined into ever greater portfolios for the purposes of wealth expansion.
Brown tackles this neoliberalism mostly with a dissection of theory, looking at rights and democracy across time, and ably interlocating Foucault's lecture on biopolitics. Case studies include the rise of 'governance' as a mode of regulation and power, the Citizens United decision and speech as capital, and the erosion of the liberal arts in higher education. Academic readers will appreciate it for its (relative) clarity and definiteness on a variety of subjects. More causal readers may enjoy it for the truly epic amounts of shade that Brown throws on the present. Witness discussing Obama's 2013 State of the Union, which called for job creation as the North Star of American policy.
"Attracting investors and developing an adequately remunerated skilled workforce--these are the goals of the world's oldest democracy led by a justice-minded president in the twenty-first century... Striking in it's own right, this formulation means that democratic state commitments to equality, liberty, inclusion, and constitutionalism are now subordinate to the project of economic growth, capital positioning, and capital enhancement. These political commitments can no longer stand on their own legs, and the speech implies, would be jettisoned if found to abate, rather than abet, economic growth."
Damn, girl. Damn.
In Undoing the Demos, Brown goes full bore for the origins and nature of the current crisis of faith, an ideology which consumes labor, democracy, law, education, and life itself in the quest for every higher profits for a small group of elites. Brown offers a strong definition of neoliberalism, capable adapting to it's protean forms, as the "economizing of spheres and activities" in policy, practice, and rhetoric, and everything which casts life as a matter of competition rather than community or exchange, and takes as it's best model the building of a diverse and exponentially expanding investment portfolio. The ultimate form of neoliberalism is the transformation of human beings, political entities with defined rights who form self-governing communities and live and die, into human capitals, value-increasing portfolios of skills, assets, and social networks, who are combined into ever greater portfolios for the purposes of wealth expansion.
Brown tackles this neoliberalism mostly with a dissection of theory, looking at rights and democracy across time, and ably interlocating Foucault's lecture on biopolitics. Case studies include the rise of 'governance' as a mode of regulation and power, the Citizens United decision and speech as capital, and the erosion of the liberal arts in higher education. Academic readers will appreciate it for its (relative) clarity and definiteness on a variety of subjects. More causal readers may enjoy it for the truly epic amounts of shade that Brown throws on the present. Witness discussing Obama's 2013 State of the Union, which called for job creation as the North Star of American policy.
"Attracting investors and developing an adequately remunerated skilled workforce--these are the goals of the world's oldest democracy led by a justice-minded president in the twenty-first century... Striking in it's own right, this formulation means that democratic state commitments to equality, liberty, inclusion, and constitutionalism are now subordinate to the project of economic growth, capital positioning, and capital enhancement. These political commitments can no longer stand on their own legs, and the speech implies, would be jettisoned if found to abate, rather than abet, economic growth."
Damn, girl. Damn.