In a 2017 article , Nancy Fraser, an American philosopher, develops the concept of “progressive neoliberalism”.
Her thesis could be summarized as follows. To gain acceptance of the social inequalities it causes, neoliberalism needs an attractive facade. Societal struggles, painless for its model of wealth distribution, provide it. However, these advances in reality only benefit members of minorities who already belong to the dominant class.
The article below is a summary of the first part of Nancy Fraser’s text which you will find here .
Recognition and Distribution
Since the 20th century, capitalism has based its authority on two complementary aspects of justice: distribution and recognition.
Distribution consists of the way in which society will redistribute the wealth and goods it produces. It results in a specific structure of the human community. It therefore has an impact on the division of society into social classes.
Recognition , for its part, organizes social statuses . It determines to whom signs of respect, feelings of inclusion or pride should go.
Progressive Neoliberalism
Progressive neoliberalism is the unlikely alliance of liberal societal currents, such as feminism, anti-racism or the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights, with the forces of financialized capitalism.
It therefore combines an economic program ( distribution ) based on greater concentration of wealth in the hands of an already established elite, to the detriment of the middle and working classes, with an extension of the rights of minorities.
Societal progressivism ( recognition ) makes a strengthening of the domination of economic elites acceptable. The maneuver consists of giving this brutal economic policy an appearance that arouses support, even avant-garde.
However, this promise of societal emancipation remains superficial. Environmental injunctions only lead to the carbon market. In France, we could say that feminism only results in inclusive writing. Only members of minorities who possess significant cultural, social and economic capital can break the “glass ceiling”. In short, those who already belong to the dominant class. And “all the others find themselves stuck in the cellar”.
To understand how economic elites are won over by societal progressivism, read our article, The Cancel Culture.
Hegemony of Progressive Neoliberalism
Distribution therefore operates according to the neoliberal paradigm, and recognition is based on societal progressivism. This composition allows progressive neoliberalism to achieve hegemony .
Hegemony is a concept introduced by the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci. The ruling class asserts its power by passing off its vision of the world as the only reasonable one. It thus determines what constitutes “common sense”.
It goes hand in hand with the organization of a “hegemonic bloc”, a disparate coalition of social forces through which the ruling class exercises its power.
In this way, critics of progressive neoliberalism naturally find themselves delegitimized in two ways. If they fight neoliberalism, they are accused of populism. If they oppose societal progressivism, proponents of neoliberalism can label them racist. And because of the proximity of the two currents, the criticism of neoliberalism becomes a criticism of progressivism. The circle is closed and the opponents of neoliberalism muzzled, sent to the margins of public debate.
However, this hegemony will only last for a short time. Indeed, progressive neoliberalism is well suited to urban elites who are educated and well integrated into economic flows. On the other hand, it leaves the rest of the population behind, victims of austerity policies or poorly connected to metropolises. The successes of Trump in the United States or of the far right in Europe show that this model is already cracking.
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Progressive neoliberalism therefore constitutes a paradigm according to which the worsening of economic inequalities is hidden behind the screen of societal struggles. The latter remain painless for the financial elites , and give legitimacy to a redistribution system which would otherwise prove unacceptable.
However, it would be a mistake to conclude that Nancy Fraser rejects the need for societal debates. She is herself involved in the feminist movement. She deplores that these struggles, in their “progressive neoliberalist” form, only benefit minorities who already belong to the dominant class. Indeed, according to her, inequalities of recognition find their source in capitalist economic organization. She therefore actually advocates an alliance between progressives and anti-capitalism (which she calls “populism”) in order to limit social inequalities while advancing societal struggles.
The end of “progressive neoliberal” hegemony may ultimately prove to be the root cause of the political transformation affecting the West. The question is not only to know which distribution system will replace progressive neoliberalism, and on what horizon. It is above all a question of being able to face the “monsters” which will be born in the transition.
“The old world is dying, the new is slow to appear and in this chiaroscuro the monsters emerge”Antonio Gramsci
For a similar thesis, read our article Class struggle or race struggle .
This short summary is only intended to encourage you to read the full article, here . He develops these concepts and applies them to American politics to better understand it.
