The Biopolitics of Neoliberal Governance

Abstract

Amid the burgeoning financial crisis, the Group of Twenty (G-20) met for the 2008 Washington Summit, attended by President Zapatero of the ruling Socialist party (PSOE), where the world’s wealthiest nations called for concerted international cooperation to reform the financial sector favorable to reviving global flows of capital. The many points identified in the declaration may have been a legible indicator that the world’s leading economic powers were coming to terms with the responsibility of unethical business practices and systemic flaws, among other factors, in the successive tumbling of international markets in a domino effect (Declaration of the Summit, 2008). Yet, despite the nuances of different policy positions in the European Union at large, political and financial powers have interpreted the need for “structural reform” as the basis from which to pursue deeper austerity measures and labor laws favoring precarity, thereby dismantling the welfare state and social rights in Spain under the aegis of neoliberal reform. According to this logic, as the G-20 declaration asserts, greater competition, private investments, and the surveillance and tempered regulation of the free market—in sum, free market activity with minimal state intervention, as deemed necessary—equate directly to greater opportunity, entrepreneurship, and prosperity that deliver poverty reduction and a higher standard of living on a global scale.

Our work will be guided by a shared belief that market principles, open trade and investment regimes, and effectively regulated financial markets foster the dynamism, innovation, and entrepreneurship that are essential for economic growth, employment, and poverty reduction. […] We recognize that these reforms will only be successful if grounded in a commitment to free market principles, including the rule of law, respect for private property, open trade and investment, competitive markets, and efficient, effectively regulated financial systems. These principles are essential to economic growth and prosperity and have lifted millions out of poverty, and have significantly raised the global standard of living. Recognizing the necessity to improve financial sector regulation, we must avoid over-regulation that would hamper economic growth and exacerbate the contraction of capital flows, including to developing countries. We underscore the critical importance of rejecting protectionism and not turning inward in times of financial uncertainty.

—Declaration from the G-20 Washington Summit 2008

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