Neoliberalism, like neoconservatism doesn't refer to anything. These words were created by wannabe pundits. Political science researchers at UC Berkeley once reported that in recent years "neoliberalism has become an academic catchphrase", and that its use "remains a puzzle" because it is "left undefined"- even those folks who use it as a vital piece of debates and criticisms. Both terms are more rhetorical like (take that you blankety-blank neoliberal) than analytic. Boas's and Gans-Morse said that neoliberalism is used in so many different ways that the word neoliberalism used in any phrase offers little clue as to what it actually means. In a 2009 article, Stanley Fish wrote that this was borne out by the commentators, many of whom vehemently disagree with him and at the same time disagree with one another. Here is what he wrote: Neoliberalism is just another word for neoconservatism; no, they're different; Neoliberalism is 19th century laissez-faire, capitalism, no, it isn't; Neoliberalism is what "new Democrats" Bill Clinton and All Gore urge; Neoliberalism is Adam Smith on Steroids; Neoliberalism is Marx's dialectical materialism; Neoliberalism is just capitalism; Neoliberalism is J.S. Mills libertarianism; Neoliberalism is plain old cost accounting; Neoliberalism is Bushism; Neoliberalism is classical liberalism ; Neoliberalism is what Ayn Rand promoted;; Neoliberalism is globalism; Neoliberalism is avarice; Neoliberalism is Law and Economics.
