Iām far from an expert at all, but I see neoliberalism as an outcome of environmental factors and human nature. We have, over time, created an environment where resources are scarce, trade is global, there is no ābenevolent leaderā / royalty to decide for us, and policies that are implemented typically resonate with human nature in those conditions
I donāt believe there is some entity pulling the neoliberal strings to perfectly set things up for them to swoop
Sure, if we were designing a new country, clean slate (say coming out of communism or after overthrowing some royals), weād consult a playbook and have a consideration of the model we wanted to implement. And neoliberalism would be one of those models. But whatās happened here is a collection of things that have evolved over time, and collectively we look at it and label things with a similar theme as āneoliberalismā. I donāt believe we have chosen the model, rather we have chosen policies that fit our circumstances. Weāve just chosen the label to apply
Obviously there have been key moments in the past where politicians have consulted theory to work out what to do (eg Rogernomics), but these are anomalies in the long term. Most of what we do is incremental policy making, which resonates with the zeitgeist at any one point in time
It isnāt perfect. It just is. Is there a better model that is currently working elsewhere, and would be a better fit for NZ? I donāt believe so. I think human nature and democratic populations naturally choose policies, over time, that are optimal for them, given environmental factors