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Oct 18, 20204 min read

What role would neoliberalism play in a Biden/Harris administration?

By: Jack Siegel


Over the past couple of decades, polarization has driven Americans further from the center and from the willingness to compromise than at any time in history. Nowhere was this more evident than in each party’s struggle to fend off extremists over the past four years, with Bernie Sanders challenging Democrats from the left and Donald Trump overtaking Republicans from the right. Among both the leftist and far-right camps, a new political curse word emerged: “neoliberal.” In broad terms, neoliberalism aims for a global, urban society that lets the market regulate most of the big issues. To its critics, who make up populist movements on both sides of the aisle, the very word describes all of their frustrations with the status quo: rampant globalism had drained America of its wealth, corporations and wealthy individuals had been allowed to pay little in taxes and abuse the people with monopolies, and the environment had been destroyed as a sacrifice to the almighty dollar. But despite these complaints from both sides, Democrats nominated Joe Biden, a centrist who won by mostly ignoring these complaints and advocating for the classic Democrat platform of union markets, social liberalism, and global thinking. So, what exactly is neoliberalism, why is Joe Biden accused of it, and would he employ it in the Oval Office?


What exactly is neoliberalism?


For most of the 20th and 21st centuries, politics has been a clash between conservatives,

who value tradition and institution as a way of maintaining prosperity, and liberals, who think

that individual liberty and accepting societal change make society more prosperous. From

social issues like gay marriage and abortion to economic ones like tariffs and federal aid

programs, the division between conservatives and liberals was drawn upon lines of nationalism versus globalism, tradition versus tolerance, and austerity versus welfare. However, American politics have recently become centered almost entirely around social issues, where a regressive and traditionalist Republican Party has found itself against a broad coalition of minorities, progressives, and liberals in the Democratic Party. Neoliberalism is the compromise between Republican economics and Democratic social views, under which the government interferes as little as possible both in individual liberties and in economic matters. Both President Reagan and President Clinton popularized some of the most well-known neoliberal ideals.


In government, neoliberals are known mostly for the NAFTA, which opened trade

between Canada, Mexico, and the United States starting in 1994 and was recently replaced with

the USMCA. The Obama administration tried to continue this trend when it engineered the

Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement between the Americas and much of South and

East Asia, which Donald Trump pulled America out of on the first day of his presidency. Other

neoliberal political ideas that have seen the spotlight recently include deregulation in urban areas,

eliminating the corporate tax, and effectively doubling the capital gains tax on investments.

The biggest challenge neoliberalism faces are reigning in the power of the corporation.

Supposedly corporations acting in their own self-interest would avoid destroying the planet with pollutants or disrupting entire democracies in exchange for extra revenue. However, this hasn’t been the case, and many Americans now clamor for more regulation and responsibility for companies. To neoliberals, regulation is to be avoided because it can stifle growth, but what

about incentives to be more environmentally-friendly? The new solution is to influence corporations with subsidies and taxes to encourage and discourage certain actions, like a carbon tax on CO2 emissions or a data-collected tax to punish tech companies that spy too much on their users.


Is Joe Biden a neoliberal?


It’s hard to judge Joe Biden on a scale of liberalism, as the scale has moved drastically

since the introduction of Bernie Sanders to the Democratic Party. Policies like Medicare for All

and the Green New Deal, once considered leftist pipe dreams, is now backed by a political force that threatens to upend the liberal-conservative duality in politics. From this perspective, Joe Biden fits into the definition of a neoliberal quite nicely: he wants to straddle the line between old-fashioned economics and a bold progressive spirit. What most of America, including Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and even some Republicans, share with neoliberals is a belief in strong personal liberties, which means total equality under the law for the LGBTQ+ community, and all races, creeds, religions, etc.. This is an area Joe Biden checks all the boxes in he’s advocated for and sponsored bills towards this purpose, from the Violence Against Women Act to immigration reforms in the Obama administration.

In terms of the proposed policy, Joe Biden’s progressive motivations tend to draw him away

from the incentive part of solving problems towards the path of intervention, which makes him

more traditionally Democratic and less neoliberal in these areas. His national investment and COVID recovery plan called Build Back Better involves direct federal spending on research in new technologies, national transportation infrastructure, and broadband internet, all of which neoliberals prefer to be controlled by the private market. His plan also includes a $700 billion “Buy American” initiative, which goes against the neoliberal advocacy for global trade. However, it’s worth noting that Biden served as President Obama’s Vice President when the Trans-Pacific Partnership was forged, meaning that he could be open to joining more free trade agreements, a neoliberal policy.


Would a Joe Biden administration be neoliberal?


Overall, Joe Biden has maintained a very liberal track record over decades in

government. He’s shown that he’s willing to compromise with people to his left toward

progressive action on things like climate change, which may cover some of the expected flaws in

a hardcore neoliberal presidency. The values of social and economic liberalism show up both in

his votes and in the policies he champions, so it would be hard to say that a President Biden

wouldn’t be the same: pragmatic, evidence-based, and hands-off except for some key issues.

Although “neoliberal” has become a negative term to many Americans, Joe Biden wears the

label with pride, seeking an America where the deep divides of polarization might be closed.


Discussion Questions:

  • Is Neoliberalism a greater asset or detriment to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign?

  • Why is liberalism receiving increased backlash in American politics?

  • Can Joe Biden’s campaign goals be achieved if he wins the Presidency?


Sources Used/Further Reading:


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