| A cursory review of the contemporary history of America would impress readers with a series of conflicting ideas of American uniqueness.For example,the United States is globally the most developed and open economy.However,Americans are highly religious people and the proportion of regular churchgoers is higher than that of other Western countries.This may explain why in those other countries controversies around gay rights and abortion have since long been settled,yet conclusions on those issues in the U.S are far from being final.Although the verdicts of the Supreme Court have temporarily settled many of the controversies,non-governmental organizations and lobby groups remain stubborn and passionate.In addition,even though the U.S.is one of the affluent nations,the U.S.government offers meager welfare benefits to its citizens in comparison with other developed counterparts.Presidential inauguration speeches,regardless of their political alignment,usually cover such familiar topics as liberty,equality and democracy,but putting those words under stricter scrutiny demonstrates that it would be found that the words in different presidential inauguration speeches may have different,sometimes contradictory references.The same word,for example,may have opposite denotations and connotations.One of the most intriguing phenomena is that those who harbor strong suspicion and hostility towards government intervention in the economy prefer to put culture and morality under government supervision and regulation,while those who prefer government responsibility for a stable economy,may prefer hand-off policies from the government in such fields as culture and morality.What is more,some people strongly oppose government intervention in both the economy and culture,their tenet being echoed in the belief that “government which governs the least governs the best.” This unique American phenomenon has become an academic magnet for me to probe into the field of liberalism and conservativism.By focusing on neoliberalism,one branch of conservativism,my research attempts to analyze the evolution of neoliberalism from 1944 to 1980 in order to propose an analytical framework for understanding the above issues of unique American characteristics.I believe that my efforts afford readers a better understanding of the seemingly self-conflicting cultural issues.By focusing on analyzing the epistemology and methodology of neoliberalism and its evolution,it is my hope that various lessons can be learned for our society during its transitional period.It is within this context that the present dissertation analyzes this unique brand of neoliberalism beginning in 1944,as reflected in The Road to Serfdom,first published in America in 1944,which is actually America's neoliberal manifesto.My justification is based on the fact that the topics discussed in the book,though in an unsystematic way,indeed defined the parameters for scholars of neoliberalism to conduct and present their research.The topics in that early work included such aspects as individualism and collectivism,democracy and planning,the rule of law,economic control and totalitarianism,social security and freedom,monopoly and government regulation,and the principles of possibility and impossibility.For purposes of explaining the development and nature of neoliberalism,it was felt that the dissertation logically could analyze neoliberalism up to 1980.That year is heralded as the landmark in neoliberalism,as it was Ronald Reagan's win in the 1980 U.S.presidential election which came to symbolize the emergence and coalescence of neoliberalism as the official doctrine of conservatives.Also,it was from 1944 to1980 that a host of social philosophies emerged,transformed and clashed with each other.It is also seen as a period when conservativism went through a process of fusion and fission.In this dissertation,I show that by analyzing neoliberal evolution during these 36 years provides a framework for present readers to comprehend the various schools of modern conservative philosophies in America.Through restructuring and dissecting neoliberalism,I began to focus on two noted neoliberals and their works.The first is H.A.K Hayek,a guru of the Austrian School,and the second is Milton Friedman,a noted scholar of the Chicago School.It soon became apparent that the neoliberal ideas of Hayek inherit the defining elements of the classic liberalism of human dignity and liberty,the virtue of the market under the rule of law,and the possibility and necessity of limited government.However,Hayek denies the hypothesis in classical liberalism that man is economically a rational being.From his perspective of treating institutions and tradition as information carriers,he justifies the argument that the market is not only the place where the division of labor and allocation of resources are engaged,but also the venue where knowledge is produced,disseminated and exploited.He justifies his supposition that an efficient economy must be an economy which can efficiently produce,spread and exploit knowledge.Thus,he sets out to prove that government intervention is an impossibility in epistemology.By shifting his justification epistemologically,he establishes the cultural evolution of general rules closely related to his concept of spontaneous social order.His studies enriched and transformed the classical liberalism of the time and turned it into a new system of social ideas,that of “neoliberalism.”While Hayek endeavors to deny the possibility of socialist planning in epistemology and stipulates the harm posed by government intervention in economy,Friedman engages in an attempt to prove that policies adopted by “New Dealers”would be incompatible with the results expected by his Positivist Methodology in the economy.He denies what the classical liberals once admitted--that market economy would harm those who were uncompetitive in the market.He argues that the free market with the government as a watchman would bring benefits to all market participants.In essence,this is a libertarianism-oriented argument.However,inconsistencies and defects in neoliberal theories,as proposed by Hayek and Friedman,need to be scrutinized through careful analysis and discussion.That represents another contribution of the present dissertation.For example,Hayek emphasizes that social order is a self-generating,spontaneous order,but as this research illustrates,a self-generating order by no means guarantees liberty for every individual.Hayek insists on the non-morality of market mechanisms and stresses that it prioritizes efficiency over fairness.But he fails to recognize that these types of business philosophy lead to a new Keynesianism: that is,individuals plunge into heavy debts to boost market demand.Professor Friedman's neoliberal approach also suffers from logical fallacies.He advocates the limitation of government power by separating its political power from economic power.In consequence,behemoths dominate the industry and market freedom is so severely undermined that government power has to be resorted to in order to break the ironclad behemoths' power--a practice,which is incompatible with neoliberalism tenets.Moreover,it is clear that the only goal of neoliberalism is to boost efficiency which,again,is in conflict with a series of values upheld by any society.Apart from the lessons noted above,other important lessons can be learned from Neoliberalism ideas.By way of further examples,Hayek proposes that knowledge consists of both tacit and explicit knowledge and that explicit knowledge is rooted in tacit knowledge.Also,understanding explicit knowledge must be under the framework of tacit knowledge,and this offers convincing evidence that vindicates the failure of transplanting political systems.Moreover,Hayek's notion of cultural evolution of systems of rules presents a new perspective in methodology for understanding the real importance of culture.Friedman,on the other hand,emphasizes that in analyzing costs and benefits of any social policy,importance should be attached to the hidden costs.And,in that regard,economic regulation comes with a hidden cost,all of which is enlightening in economic policies.The importance of the present dissertation,with its focus on the development of U.S.neoliberalism,therefore,is that it provides an in-depth discussion of these practices and principles which evolved and became the centerpieces of conservatism in the U.S.And it outlines a framework in which to understand the self-conflicting cultural,political,economic and social issues inherent in present-day U.S.neoliberalism.Hopefully,this in-depth understanding will provide valuable lessons in our transitional society and will help avoid the contention and contradictions that we see in America today. |
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