From Neoliberalism to Illiberalism.
The Great Transformation after 1989
Phillip Ther`s lecture
24.10, 19:00,
The House of Cinema, Blue hall
On October 24, at 19:00, within the framework of Black Cloud – Kyiv Biennial 2019, we invite you to Philipp Ther`s (France) lecture “From Neoliberalism to Illiberalism. The Great Transformation after 1989.”
The lecture deals with the intellectual history, the political practice and the social consequences of neoliberalism. The main pillars of this ideology are an idealization of unrestrained, free markets, in the belief that they create an equilibrium for all sorts of market imbalances, an irrational faith in the rationality of market agents, and a libertarian antipathy toward the state. It also includes some elements of traditional laissez-faire capitalism such as the concept of the “hidden hand,” adding a metaphysical dimension whereby the market is regarded as a last judgment over all commodities.
On the practical side, neoliberalism is based upon a standard economic recipe consisting of austerity, privatization, liberalization and deregulation that was codified in the “Washington Consensus” in 1989. Neoliberal reforms were at first implemented in the 1980s in Chile, Great Britain and the United States. With the demise of state socialism in 1989, neoliberalism gained global hegemony and transformed Central and Eastern Europe.particularly hard.
The lecture deals with the intellectual history, the political practice and the social consequences of neoliberalism. The main pillars of this ideology are an idealization of unrestrained, free markets, in the belief that they create an equilibrium for all sorts of market imbalances, an irrational faith in the rationality of market agents, and a libertarian antipathy toward the state. It also includes some elements of traditional laissez-faire capitalism such as the concept of the “hidden hand,” adding a metaphysical dimension whereby the market is regarded as a last judgment over all commodities.
On the practical side, neoliberalism is based upon a standard economic recipe consisting of austerity, privatization, liberalization and deregulation that was codified in the “Washington Consensus” in 1989. Neoliberal reforms were at first implemented in the 1980s in Chile, Great Britain and the United States. With the demise of state socialism in 1989, neoliberalism gained global hegemony and transformed Central and Eastern Europe.particularly hard.
Philipp Ther (born 1967) is Professor of Central European History at the University of Vienna, where he also guides the Research Cluster for the History of Transformations (RECET). Previously he was professor of comparative European history at the EUI in Florence. Three of his monographs have been published in English: Europe since 1989: A History, Princeton University Press, 2016, The Dark Side of Nation States: Ethnic Cleansing in Modern Europe, New York: Berghahn Press, 2014, and Center Stage: Operatic Culture and Nation Building in 19th Century Central Europe, West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2014. He has co-edited twelve other books, his articles have been translated into fifteen European languages. His most recent books are a synthesis on the history of refugees in modern Europe. In the fall of 2019, his book The Outsiders: Refugees in Europe since 1492 will be published by Princeton UP. In 2019, he was awarded the Wittgenstein Prize of the Austrian Research Fund, which is the highest recognition for scientists in Austria.
