Hayek's neoliberalism as a moment of counterrevolution

Abstract

This paper aims at presenting elements for the defense that Hayek's neoliberalism is one of the last great moments of the counterrevolutionary project in the 20th century. Inspired by Fredric Jameson and Paul Ricoeur we undertook a “suspicion reading” of his “true liberalism” theory, investigating the foundations of his both defense of market society and criticism of collectivism. Understanding that his discourse is built from the confrontation with the experience of the Russian Revolution, we briefly point out how neoliberalism was mobilized as a political intervention project from the late 1960s onwards, as a form of reaction to the aspirations of social transformation. Finally, we return to our hypothesis that the basis of the author's neoliberalism resides in a social ontology that blocks from the beginning any form of expanded collectivity and solidarity, in favor of competition and a social dynamic based on sectarianism, potentially destructive of the social bond.