The Rise of the Neoliberal Rhetoric: Reaganomics and Its Contradictions

Abstract

This chapter begins the inquiry on the American industrial strategy in the neoliberal era. It focuses on the 1980s, when in the United States the debate over the necessity to adopt a national industrial policy arose for the first time. In this context, an irruptive neoliberal sentiment took its first steps under President Reagan’s rhetoric. The main questions addressed in this chapter are the following: how actually did the economic role of the government change during this period? Which role did the neoliberal rhetoric of that period play? Why should we care that a possible gap between rhetoric and practice existed? Did the rhetoric itself have any causal impact on policy outcomes? Why would successive governments feel the need of embracing pro-market rhetoric?