States or Markets – Twenty-five Years On

Abstract

Pricist approaches to development policy reached their apogee under the influence of neoliberal economists in the post-Reagan/Thatcher years. Their version of state-minimalism was more extreme than that conceived by the very founders of economic liberalism two centuries earlier. Revisiting the themes of a critique published 25 years ago, this article finds that its thesis remains vitally relevant today. It argues, however, that its analytic approach needs to be reset to focus more sharply upon the macro consequences of the neoliberal legacy.