Afterword: Post-Neoliberal Politics and Pathways

Abstract

When we first proposed this book project to our contributors in 2006, a number of developments in the Americas converged to suggest that a profound and sustainable transformation of neoliberalism was under way. While individual authors within the collection hold different views about the utility of the concept of post-neoliberalism, as a whole, the contributions to this volume provide ample support for the thesis that the hemisphere is currently at a crossroads, and that neoliberal policies are increasingly transcended by more socially interventionist and ameliorative post-neoliberal alternatives. Certainly some countries within the hemisphere continue to cling to neoliberal policies, and elements of the neoliberal policy agenda persist in most countries of the region, as explored in depth in this collection. Recent developments, however, highlight a deepening of post-neoliberal trends in the region and suggest that the rise of post-neoliberal policy alternatives must be conceptualized as a deep structural rather than a shallow conjunctural transformation. This brief afterword will identify some of the most pertinent characteristics of post-neoliberal politics, highlight some of the recent trends in both the Northern and the Southern parts of the hemisphere, and speculate about the potential impacts such trends might have on future post-neoliberal pathways.