By Cliff Potts, WPS News

In a time when political labels are slung like mud and truth is a casualty of culture wars, one term is consistently misunderstood, misused, or ignored entirely: neoliberalism. Yet this ideology, born of elite economic theory and spread through decades of bipartisan policy, underpins much of the political decay and economic despair we now face. Worse, neoliberalism has laid the philosophical and structural groundwork for the resurgence of fascism—not as its opposite, but as its inevitable shadow.

What Is Neoliberalism?

Neoliberalism is not new, nor is it liberal in the sense of human rights or democracy. Coined in the mid-20th century, the term refers to a political-economic philosophy that champions free markets, deregulation, privatization, and the reduction of state influence in favor of individual competition (Harvey, 2005). It is the gospel of Reagan and Thatcher, of Clinton’s welfare reform and Obama’s Wall Street bailouts. It is bipartisan, global, and often invisible—precisely because it has become the air we breathe.

Neoliberalism tells us that the market is the most efficient, fair, and moral mechanism for organizing society—that everything from education to health care to justice itself should be subjected to cost-benefit analysis, return on investment, and supply-demand logic. Under neoliberalism, citizens become consumers, workers become liabilities, and governments become enforcers of austerity rather than protectors of the public good (Brown, 2015).

The Philosophical Overlap With Fascism

Fascism, in its classical form, is a nationalist, authoritarian ideology that exalts the state, suppresses dissent, and seeks to unify the populace under a singular vision of power. But modern fascism has learned to adapt—to wear a suit and tie, to pose as populism, and to operate within the bounds of neoliberal economics while undermining democracy from within.

At first glance, neoliberalism and fascism seem incompatible. One claims to champion markets and freedom; the other celebrates obedience and centralized control. But in practice, they are mutually reinforcing. Neoliberalism dismantles democratic institutions and leaves behind a hollowed-out public sphere, a disillusioned citizenry, and vast economic inequality. Fascism steps in to fill the vacuum—with scapegoats, with nationalism, with violence.

As philosopher Wendy Brown explains, neoliberalism “undermines the foundations of liberal democracy” by eroding public trust, devaluing civic participation, and glorifying individualism over collective responsibility (Brown, 2019). What’s left is a population ripe for fascist manipulation—fearful, fragmented, and fed up.

Neoliberalism doesn’t oppose fascism; it paves the road for it.

Real-World Evidence: From Chile to Trump

The alliance between neoliberalism and authoritarianism is not theoretical. It has been tested, implemented, and refined.

  • In Chile, neoliberal economists from the “Chicago Boys” implemented brutal economic reforms under fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet—with the explicit blessing of Western capitalists and governments (Klein, 2007).
  • In Russia, the post-Soviet neoliberal “shock therapy” created a kleptocracy that laid the groundwork for Putin’s authoritarian regime (Stiglitz, 2002).
  • In the United States, decades of neoliberal policy—outsourcing, union-busting, austerity, deregulation—have fueled the resentment and despair that elevated Donald Trump, a proto-fascist figure, to power.

Trump did not invent this crisis. He is the inevitable result of a system that values capital over people and competition over compassion.

A Warning and a Choice

The danger is not just that fascism might emerge again—it already has. The question is whether we continue to enable it by clinging to neoliberal dogma or begin to fight for a system that actually serves human needs.

Neoliberalism will not save us from fascism. It summons it.

And if we fail to understand that—clearly, directly, and now—we may not get another chance.

References

Brown, W. (2015). Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution. MIT Press.

Brown, W. (2019). In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West. Columbia University Press.

Harvey, D. (2005). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford University Press.

Klein, N. (2007). The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Metropolitan Books.

Stiglitz, J. (2002). Globalization and Its Discontents. W. W. Norton & Company.

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