Foucault's neoliberalism Flashcards
(12 cards)
Max Weber
Believed that The Protestant Ethic created The Spirit of Capitalism
The Protestant Ethic
The anxiety over salvastion in Calvanism led believers to seek signs of God in wealth creation, not for enjoyment but to be able to enter heaven
Spirit of Capitalism
This spirit is characterized by a rational pursuit of profit, hard work, frugality and reinvestment
Neoliberalism
it is a specific form of economic government that increases the economic productivity of the population by imposing competition and encouraging individuals to conduct themselves as entrepreneurs of their own human capital.
Aims at increasing economic productivity through competition, individual responsibility, deregulation and privatization
Two main principle of Neoliberalism
The government must impose competition in order to guarantee efficiency
Homo oeconomicus as the model of individual behavior and individuals as entrepreneurs of their own lives
Max Weber two ideal-types of capitalists subject
Protestant and the adventurer
Characteristics of the Protestant (4)
- Strong work ethic
- Frugality
- Rationality
- Sense of calling
Characteristics of the Adventurer (4)
- Driven by risk
- Unrational
- Not frugal
- Motivated in personal gain
Homo oecenomicus (Becker)
Humans as perfectly rational, self-interested individuals, consistently strive to maximize their own utility (satisfaction) and has complete information.
Chicago School on Human Capital (Schultz & Becker after WO II)
A) Human characteristics as a stock of human capital ready to invest
B) Individuals as utility-maximizing agent (more protestant than adventurer)
Two limits of the homo oeconomicus
- Cognitive biases: distortion of reasoning leading to irrational choices
- Information deficit: the future is unknowable and uncertain, information acquisition is a transaction cost
The problem with profit and the homo oeconomicus
If everyone acts as homo oeconomicus this leads to perfect competition and rationality, then there is no profit
