This essay argues
that neoliberalism is not merely an economic theory but a political project
that has transformed governance and weakened democratic accountability. By
elevating market efficiency above public responsibility, neoliberal policies
have eroded the social contract and empowered economic elites. Deregulation,
privatization, and the dismantling of welfare protections have deepened
inequality and public distrust. The state has shifted from serving citizens to
managing them as market actors while insulating corporate power from democratic
oversight. These changes have fragmented society, hollowed institutions, and
fueled political alienation. Neoliberalism's portrayal as neutral economics
obscures its role in reinforcing elite control. Neoliberal economic policies
and their radical conception of society have undermined the standard of living
of the middle and working class and people experiencing poverty. Neoliberalism
has hollowed out democracies and civil society by recasting the entire social and
political field into the image of the market. It reconfigures critical
institutions, particularly the neoliberal state, that actively work to create
markets and protect them from alternative discourses while helping to shape
society into the image of the market. Neoliberalism has captured our political
system and set the national agenda, which sociologist Loic Wacquant calls a new
mode of governance.
