Social politics in the neoliberalism context

a reflection about the limits of the bourgeois state

Abstract

This article proposes a reflection on the neoliberal interventionist State in the configuration of social policies throughout history, culminating in the current pattern. Neoliberalism, the theoretical and ideological expression of today’s capitalism. However, it is in Classical Political Economy that this will establish the guiding principles of the foundations of neoliberalism. Adam Smith, an adept of Classical Political Economy, introduced the principle of the “invisible hand”, which advocates that the market, from the action of individuals, becomes the regulating agent that ensures the well-being of the society. The crisis of this model in the late 1920s culminated in the emergence of a new actor, essential for social order: The State. Remarkable experiences such as the New Deal in the United States and the Welfare State in Europe ”“ both based on Keynesian theories, advocates that the market is unable to self-regulate, have opened up space for economic policy. The Socialist Revolution, at the same time, in 1917, in the Soviet Union, was another historical landmark that consolidated the importance of workers’ organization, a salutary assumption for the advancement of social policies, emphasizing that these within the neoliberal model are considered as compensatory and limited practices. This article also seeks to emphasize the centrality of the State in the configuration of social policies, seen as a fundamental structure for the preservation of capitalism, without overlooking the importance of the class struggle.