Neolibralism

This dissertation concerns the idea that neoliberal political ideologies can be fundamentally linked to social harm theory, in terms of their consequences and outcomes, the research question this analysis centres on is, ‘Can social harm theory be applied to the consequences of neoliberalism’s political ideologies?’ Since the late 1970’s the incorporation of the neoliberal ideology has become ever more apparent in western society, it could almost be described as being imminent. Throughout the past 40 or so years neoliberalism has dominated the governments, housing, technology and financial sector and has impacted on society in destructive ways. The contemporary peak of neoliberalism arises in terms of the 2008 financial crisis and lingering state of recession in its aftermath.
Neoliberalism defined by Harvey (2005) is a model of capitalism which focuses on the economy and its deregulation to enable a free market based economic system. Hillyard and Tombs (2004) see neoliberalism as a harm generating form of capitalism which they believe makes a powerful argument for, the state needing to be held responsible for systematically producing harms.
Both of the concepts, neoliberalism and social harm, are interestingly linked and produce a captivating claim relating to the idea that neoliberalism is principally a harmful ideology, responsible for a range of social harms present in today’s society. The idea that some of these harms are ‘criminal’ is another important question that needs to be looked at and discussed, which will be done in the form of financial crime.
This dissertation is a conceptual account which will use and investigate information gained from existing literature. It will generally focus on literature from both the UK and the US. The overall structure of this dissertation will form four chapters beginning with this introductory chapter and ending in a conclusion. The dissertation will aim to look at the term neoliberalism and how its ideological