Reviewsbooks

26 | socialist Review | OCTOBER 2010

The Rise and Fall of NeoliberalismKean Birch and Vlad Mykhnenko (eds)Zed Books£18.99

In the last decade or so the cracks in the neoliberal order which dominated much of society in the last 30 years have become increasingly visible across the world. Accompanying this process there has been a surge of literature seeking to critically dissect the central tenets of neoliberalism and the methods it used to gain political dominance.

To its advantage, the timing of this new book could hardly be more favourable. The onset of the global financial crash in 2007-8, which has since grown into an economic crisis of a size not witnessed since the Great Depression of the 1930s, has accentuated the complete failure of neoliberalism to live up to its own promises. The crisis has shown beyond doubt that the neoliberal myth of an economic wonderland—in which capitalism’s previous cycles of “boom and bust” were a thing of the past—was nothing but a chimera.

So how well does The Rise and Fall of Neoliberalism succeed in providing a convincing account of its subject? The answer is: so-so.

The Age of EmpathyFrans de WaalSouvenir Press£18.99

This is a welcome and timely riposte to the currently dominant sociobiological accounts of human nature from an interesting perspective.

In contrast to evolutionary psychologists who attempt to explain the sometimes brutal and destructive aspects of our society by locating them in a naturally aggressive and fearful human psyche, de Waal challenges “macho myths” and “western origin stories” by exploring the human potential for kindness. He states, “If biology is to inform government and society the least we should do is get the full picture, drop the cardboard version that is Social Darwinism and look at what evolution has actually put in place,” asking, “What kind of animals are we?”

De Waal’s answer to this question leads to a slightly more flexible and optimistic view of human nature. He argues that the often accepted portrayal of human nature as “red in tooth and claw” neglects the important role of empathy in the evolution of our species. Drawing extensively on animal studies, de Waal relays the evidence from these along with psychological studies and

Setting the tone for the rest of the book, Birch and Mykhnenko state, “To start with, neoliberal economic theories represent an ideological project”. This perception of neoliberalism inevitably leads to emphasis being placed on the ideological and political struggles that shaped neoliberalism’s rise. This results in a lack of discussion of the structural problems of global capitalism since the late 1960s that contributed to the turn to neoliberalism.

The other side of this coin is that the book is full of examples of the ideological and political methods used by advocates of neoliberalism to advance their cause.

He looks at the “dismal science” behind neoliberal theory, the role of elite planning and corporate lobbying in “organising and pursuing capitalist class interests” and the creation of a “corruption industry” to justify neoliberal transformation in the countries of the former Soviet bloc. These provide the reader with telling stories about how the battle for neoliberal hegemony was waged across the world.

Having said this, the book remains unclear on how the monster of neoliberalism could be defeated. The alternative proposed by one of the contributors, who suggests that the way forward for “a genuine socialist and internationalist movement” goes through one single political organisation and its website, sounds not only crude and sectarian, but will also fail to convince a larger audience.

So, while The Rise and Fall of Neoliberalism provides useful insights on the rise to power of neoliberalism to its present state as a beast that lies wounded in front of our eyes, the search for how to kill it off and bring about progressive social change continues.Adam Fabry

his own anecdotal reflections in an engaging style. He builds up the argument that humans would simply not have survived without our capacity to cooperate as social animals.

He argues that this capacity relies on our ability to empathise with others who form our social group. Using an analogy of Russian dolls to unpick what he views as the multi-layered concept of empathy, de Waal distinguishes fairly intuitive, instinctive processes such as “emotional contagion” (“the ancient tendency to match each other’s emotional state”) from more sophisticated, higher-level capacities of “consolation” (feeling concern for others) and “perspective taking”, where we mentally separate ourselves from the object of our empathy to offer “targeted help”. He argues that these more complex processes contain and build upon those at the core.

In understanding humans as social animals, de Waal also offers some clarity on the false dichotomy between egoism and altruism: “The selfish/unselfish divide may be a red herring. Why try to extract the self from the other, or the other from the self, if the merging of the two is the secret behind our cooperative nature?”

While de Waal is clearly politically engaged and aware of the impact of historical context on other biologists’ views, at times he seems to lack insight into how his own context might be affecting his conclusions. This seems particularly acute in his understanding of gender. Due to a culturally reductionist caricature of Marxism and some biological essentialism concerning de Waal’s view of women as having a greater propensity to empathise because of the “maternal instinct”, this book is occasionally frustrating. Nonetheless, de Waal has made a useful contribution to current debates about whether human nature has the potential to

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