Neoliberalism incites but also restrains revolutionary change in the Third World - why articulating multiple struggles is necessary to confront structures of domination

Abstract

Neoliberal policies that have been imposed or prompted by Western countries and international organizations have exasperated social inequalities, led to higher levels of unemployment and often ruined agricultural sectors. These policies have eventually incited revolutionary fervor. Nonetheless, in addition to local factors, two external issues have restrained revolutionary change and more substantive socioeconomic change in emerging and developing states: new constitutionalism and low-intensity democracy. Inspired by Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau, I argue that these implications (normative framework of neoliberalism and low-intensity democracy) serving imperial interests can be confronted by articulating multiple struggles that support social justice, political equality and self-government. Such insights, especially regarding antagonism and hegemony, inspire strategies of revolutionary change against neoliberal hegemony and structures of domination. This strategy, which can be applied to both international and local political struggles, reworks revolutionary change by engaging with Asaf Bayat's reflections and Hannah Arendt's approach to revolution.