Schmidt Discusses Neo-Liberal Ideas and Impact on Democratic Capitalism
On November 12, 2021, Vivien Schmidt, Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration and Professor of International Relations and Political Science at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, spoke at the 2021 Stato e Mercato Annual Seminar on a panel exploring comparative political economy and the future of democratic capitalism.
Schmidt’s presentation, titled “The Power of Ideas in Capitalism Transformations and Democratic Backlash,” was based on a paper of hers that will be published in Stato e Mercato for the journal’s 40th anniversary. Her remarks sought to explain the resilience of neo-liberal ideas since the 1980s, their impact on democratic capitalism, and whether they would remain the paradigm in the future.
Schmidt began by theorizing about the nature of the resilience and power of neo-liberal ideas and discourse, exploring the powerful role of resilient neo-liberal ideas and discourse in the neo-liberal transformations in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and during the Eurozone crisis. She then considered what neoliberalism wrought in terms of the deep changes in capitalist structures, institutions, and policies brought about by the neo-liberal project. Schmidt went on to discuss the rise of alternative ideas, first with the populist democratic backlash to the impact of neo-liberal transformations, then with the COVID-19 crisis response that has seemed to put a pause to neoliberalism, with a shift to sustainable and equitable growth. She concluded with an analysis of neoliberalism’s seeming decline in resilience at the moment.
Vivien Schmidt is Professor of International Relations and Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and was the first Director of BU’s Center for the Study of Europe, housed at the Pardee School. Schmidt’s research focuses on European political economy, institutions, democracy, and political theory—in particular on the importance of ideas and discourse in political analysis. Read more about Professor Schmidt on her faculty profile.