Novica Supić

English

Research Papers in Economics

PANOECONOMICUS, 2008, 4, str. 527-530                                                                Book Review 
 
 
Kosta Josifidis, Alpar Lošonc, Neoliberalizam: 
sudbina ili izbor (Neoliberalism: Destiny or Choice) 
Graphic, Novi Sad 2007 
 
Novica Supić
∗  
 
Neoliberalism is an ideological catchword for the political economic transforma-
tions and practices that took place throughout the whole world from the 
seventies of twentieth century onward. It comprehensively denotes these practi-
ces led in the name of the reinstallment of old liberalism of XIX century. Accor-
ding to the fiat of neoliberalism the human welfare is to be put into practice by 
liberating enterpreneurial freedom with the institutional framework characterized 
by private property rights and free markets. Neoliberalism intends to minimalize 
the role of state which task is to guarantee the law-based infrastucture of market 
economy. There is a strong temptation to infer that the existing welfare state is 
main cause of unemployment, poverty and social exclusion. 
 State should enable the implementation of the markets, but its interven-
tions into the market economy must be kept to a minimum. We are witness of 
the era that constantly emphasizes the fallacies of state in relation to the coordi-
nation of economic matters, in accordance with the fundamental premise the 
state is exposed to the informational failures and distorting management of the 
economy. Withdrawal of the state is the absolute condition for the flourishing of 
the modern economy. So, deregulation, privatization and the demolition of the 
welfare state are the main orientations for the planners of policy. The economists 
articulate the sharpened competition as the best way for the human well-being 
because the frequent market transactions can extremely contribute to the 
maximizing of human achievements. Our world is the best of all worlds due to 
the opportunies offered by market freedom. Neoliberalism has been changing the 
political and economical self-understanding of the postwar world, its capacities 
of reorganization of society are enormous; the keynesianism and the so-called 
embedded liberalism that has dominated earlier was subordinated to the attack of 
monetarism and other theoretical orientations. The meanings of social justice is 
depicted as ideological illusion with detrimental effects on the freedom. The new 
apology has been born, the apology of unfettered market that has been providing 
                                                 
∗ Faculty of Economics Subotica, Department for European economics and business Novi Sad: 
novicasupic@yahoo.com Book Review 
  528 
an unquestionable ethics for all, therefore the market is celebrated as the abso-
lute frame for the ethics that could solve the ancient issues of this field.  
  The coauthors of this book are well aware of the constellation that 
neoliberalism and its creative destructions (to use the famous words of Schum-
peter) penetrate into several areas and modify the self-interpretation of the eco-
nomics, but the whole society, too. This explains the fact that the authors have 
made an all-inclusive attempt to interprete the successes and the fiascos of neoli-
beral doctrine. The reader could in this book find a lot of reflections on the 
genesis of neoliberalism, its modes of functioning, the neoliberalization of the 
keynesian social-democracy, revitalizing global capital accumulation, the 
ideological preconditions for the neoliberalism, the criticism concerning the 
keynesian monetary ad fiscal policy, the criticism in relation to the compromise 
between the working and capitalist class etc. The authors have detected the 
ideological sources of neoliberalism (Mont-Pelerin society etc.) and the strong 
dedication to the non-simplified version of the exploring of the ideas in 
economical life is a feature of this book. This enlightens the fact the authors are 
copying with a theoretical presuppositions that shape the neoliberal programme. 
They do not say that the neoliberalism is only an application of the victorius 
ideas of economists, but they are trying to integrate the study of the ideas in their 
approach. There is a permanent tension between the power of neoliberal ideas 
and the actual practices, the authors use the term “neoliberalization”. There is a 
need to bridge the abstract and the concrete – from the laws of capitalism to the 
significance of the empirical tendencies. Neoliberalism and its disembedding of 
the constraints for capital could be portrayed as “doctrine” “strategy” etc., the 
authors are using the term “ideological project” that accentuates the processual 
character of neoliberalism and its embeddedness in historical agency-structures. 
It is to be noted that the researchers of neoliberalism necessarily confront with a 
lot of methodological issues concerning the subjective and objective dimensions 
of their subject, the dialectics of the socio-economic transformations. 
The dealing with neoliberalism needs an intellectual affinity to bring 
together the economical and non-economical aspects; this is done here. Yet it is 
almost impossible to clarify all dissipated aspects of neoliberalism in one book, 
neoliberalism is too expansive that make possible for us to gain insight in it 
within only one book. So, it is to be emphasized that this book has been written 
mostly from the economical perspective. This is an economical view on the 
neoliberal transformation of our world. We should observe that neoliberalism is 
a standard subject in the western scientific world, and there are a lot of books on 
neoliberalism as antidote to threats to the capitalist socialist order, but the 
situation in the “transition” countries is different (the case of Serbia is even 
unique, taking into account the delays of transition and war-like constellations). 
Here the transition is connected to the accelerated neoliberalization of the 
economics, therefore there is much risky business to treat the neoliberalism, Book Review 
  529 
actually, this involves a lot of added issues. Precisely this difference between 
different parts of the world sheds lights on the basic ambition of the authors, na-
mely, to grasp the essence of neoliberalism on the basis of the experience of 
transition. The dilemma built in the title of the book (destiny or choice) reflects 
very well the background of this ambition. Transition is projected as the broade-
ning space for the choice-based freedom, but what about the implementation of 
“something” such as neoliberalism, what about the direction of implementation 
of neoliberalism from above? Is this not a crucial contradiction that illustrates 
the perspective of transition?  
Let see the structure of the book. It includes two big parts. The first part 
is dealing with the general characteristics of neoliberalism, it includes four chap-
ters. The first chapter (signed by Kosta Josifidis) refers to the “choice of the life 
in transition”. The author of this chapter installs some binary coded statements, 
for example, dilemma between the smithian inclination for the trade or key-
nesian preference for consumption. After the installment of these dilemmas he 
relativizes them, or he deconstructs them pointing out the connectedness of 
neoliberalism with the interests of dominant classes and upper median classes. 
He depicts an historical account that projects a circularity between the orienta-
tions associated with the uncertainty of the market transactions and the need for 
the social security. The postwar economy has strengthened the power of  wor-
king class, the neoliberalism has been rehabilitating the power of capital, re-
establishing the conditions for capitalist accumulations has been creating the po-
wer of the economic elites. Capitalism is deeply embedded in this structural 
circularity. 
The second chapter of this part (signed by Alpar Lošonc) treats the 
“neoliberal trinity” as a complex of network ideology, economic policy, 
(foucauldian) gouvernmentality. The authors of this chapter describes with a se-
veral details the way of the organization of consent within the traditional middle 
classes for the restoration of the power of capital and the dismantling working-
class power. His intention is not to equate the globalization and the neoli-
beralism, therefore one can read reflections on the correlations and the 
divergences between them, too. He especially makes emphasis on the contra-
dictions of neoliberalism and confronts them with the actual practice of the 
reorganization of socio-economic constellation knowing that neoliberalism va-
ries from place to place as well as over time. The manageability depends on the 
local-particular dimensions in the heartland and at the margine, too. 
Kosta Josifidis has written the third and the fourth chapters of this part 
of the book. The third chapter is devoted to the important issue of the tipology of 
capitalism. The author accentuates the value of pluralistic codes in researching 
the capitalist processes. This conviction opens the door toward the analysis of 
the pluralistic neoliberal practices all over the world and makes possible the 
empirical considerations in relation to these practices.  The next and at the same Book Review 
  530 
time the last chapter of this part discusses the relationships between the 
globalization and the state, the reader can see the diverse articulations, the 
volatile mix between the globalization and the state. We could agree with the 
author that the processes that took place were not linear and they are associated 
with the uneven dynamics of capitalist accumulation and uneven geographical 
distribution of power. To conclude: the sensitiveness to the plurality, readiness 
to take into account the diverse practices demonstrates well the orientation of 
this book. 
The second part of this book (written by Alpar Lošonc) includes foor 
chapters. It does not change the subject but accomplishes an application. That is 
to say, the author makes effort to explicate to results of neoliberalism in the field 
of ecology. The author is convinced that ecology presents a good domain for the 
empirical research of the neoliberal programmes. In accordance with this, he is 
concerned with the critique of the concept of ecological modernization, and 
shows that the neoliberalization appears to be hindrance for the green-market 
because of the extreme market power of the corporations. After that he 
scrupulously analyses the modalities of neoliberalism concerning the water 
resources, fishery and the air. This part provides a chance to the repeated 
reconstruction of the neoliberal settlements in accordance with the logic of the 
selected field. 
This book is a tightly argued work of two authors made internally coherent by 
the fact that they share a common theoretical language and ideas. As such, it is a 
counter-point to the mainstream literature. Many of the chapters are situated 
within current debates between orthodox and heterodox orientations about the 
centrality of capitalism in human existence. As a result, the book constitutes an 
introduction and up-date on recent theoretical developments. In the first place, it 
addresses one of the questions of the day, the nature of, and the forms currently 
taken by neoliberalism. Secondly, in confronting this problem, the coauthors 
bring to bear the considerable intellectual resources offered by one of the most 
distinguished bodies of writing in contemporary economy. 
The authors make an attempt to provide a balanced work with careful 
argumentation that opens a number of issues in relation to the nowadays socio-
economic realities. After the reading of the book, the dilemma in the title is not 
annihilated, but gains a stronger form. Neoliberalism is may be in decline, but 
we can not much to say about how the story will end, or can be ended. 

Book review: Kosta Josifidis, Alpar Lošonc, Neoliberalizam: sudbina ili izbor (Neoliberalism: Destiny or Choice) Graphic, Novi Sad 2007

http://www.panoeconomicus.rs/casopis/dvanaestibroj/neoliberalism%20destiny%20or%20choice.pdf

Book review: Kosta Josifidis, Alpar Lošonc, Neoliberalizam: sudbina ili izbor (Neoliberalism: Destiny or Choice) Graphic, Novi Sad 2007

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