BOOK REVIEW Being Bold about Rights in a Neoliberal World

摘要

Neoliberalism, the dominant political ideology and economic and political policy during the past 40 years, poses significant challenges for human rights, particularly economic, social, and cultural rights. Also referred to as market fundamentalism, neoliberalism maintains that human well-being can best be advanced within an institutional framework characterized by free markets, a minimal state, free trade, the absence of economic regulation, and strong individual property rights. Neoliberal doctrine seeks to reduce the role of the state on which human rights depend for protection and implementation, including to diminish or even eliminate its social and welfare responsibilities. A goal of neoliberalism is to cut public expenditures for social services such as health and education, including reducing welfare programs and the safety net for the poor, with policy makers often arguing that generous entitlements are unaffordable while enacting tax cuts benefiting the wealthy. Neoliberalism also advocates for privatizing infrastructure, utilities, and social services through selling them to private investors or transferring their management to the private sector. Moreover, the neoliberal outlook does not acknowledge social and economic rights as being legitimate human rights or even genuine entitlements because in their market-based framework no one has a claim on the resources from society necessary to provide adequate food, education, housing, and health care.