What is Neoliberalism?
The socially and academically excepted definition of liberalism gives us an idea that it is a social arrangement attained by the accommodating mindset of a society where they accept the policies and practices to serve the interests of various cultures and demographics living under the same social sphere (Cross, 2017). The definition of neoliberalism has its roots in the same definition. In broad terms, we can also say that neoliberalism is a modified version of the liberalism. In this version, social engineers accommodated socio-economic concerns of the society in the mainframe of the thought processes of liberalism (Duman, 2014).
The scope of the traditional liberalism was confined to be an ideology for the societies during the 20th century. However, the concepts working under the framework of neoliberalism also deals with the formation of public policy and inclusion of the development models of the society (Venugopal, 2015). The concept of neoliberalism explains the economic distribution of common goods in society. The influence of Neo-liberalism received a sharp criticism because many social experts thought that privatization of the community goods will present an opportunity for corruption and it can create a monopoly like situation for certain players in the coming future (Cotoi, 2015). At the turn of this century neo-liberalism came in as an extension of liberalism, it was assumed that liberalism allowed individuals to think more freely and neo-liberalism allowed them to act more freely because they shared the burden of social service and community goods with the private sector, NGO’s and other organizations. The influence of these structured forces looking after various parts of administration and social arrangements forced the city planning authorities to make them a stakeholder in the process of urban planning.
It is a universal phenomenon, in order to understand it in a better way and check out its dimensions in the evolution of the next phase of neo-liberalism we can study the case of Queensland. Queensland presents an example where an electoral mandate changed the course of the proceedings and created a unique development model based on the neo-liberalism.
The concept of Neo-Liberalism promotes two very important aspects of citizen engagement and citizen dialogue. In both cases, various communities living in an urban locality expresses about their choices. In the case of Queensland, we find that it is an economy that moves on four wheels. These four wheels are “Natural resources” “Tourism,” Construction Industry” and “agriculture.”
Citizen Engagement and Dialogue: Vital Aspects of Neoliberalism
In the year 2012, the residents of the Queensland elected the government of Liberal national party with a huge mandate. This strong mandate can be compared with a strong dialogue between Citizens and elected government (Backer, 2013). Residents elected Liberal national party because they liked the urban planning approach presented in the manifesto. They approved the balanced approach of the development presented by the party.
The huge mandate was given by the public of Queensland also satisfies the concept of “Social engagement.” The results of the election give us an idea that social groups, socio-economic groups, and social support groups were ready to address all the complex social and environmental issue with an intention to form a social capital for the region (Tomlison, 2016).
While understanding the impact of the Neoliberalism in the case of urban planning in Queensland we need to see neoliberalism from the perspective of the relationship with the higher authorities. In the case of Queensland, the economic relationship between the state and the local governance bodies plays a crucial role (Stevenson, 2014). The reforms introduced by the newly elected government in Queensland downloaded financial independence of generating the resources of income to the local authorities. This income incurred by the social goods was allocated for the development of the area. Under this new arrangement, state Government restrained from practicing a Top Bottom approach and surrendered the rights and responsibility of decision making to a body operating from a lower level (Wright, 2012).
Author Brian W Head in his article presented a brief account of the terminology of the Neo-liberalism. He also explained about the co-axial relationship between the fragments of the society and larger community (Passant, 2016). He explained that neo-liberalism as a development model has all the arrangements where consistent dialogue between the government and the citizens can secure the interest of all the parties and serve the basic sentiment of the democracy (Johnson, 2015).
The development planning of Queensland supports most of the conditions of the participation and empowerment model presented by him. This model presents a journey, which starts from the travel of “information” and ends on the milestone of “empowerment.” The other milestones of this journey are consultation, involvement, and collaboration. In the case of Queen’s land, we can see the presence of these milestones in the decision-making process of the authorities.
Brian elaborated a lot about the setting up of the community goals. In the case of Queensland, the manifestoes of the political parties act as a document setting the objectives and goals for the community, a full-hearted mandate to a particular government gives us an idea that all the major fractions of the society were at the same page. It also gives us an idea that when the authorities decided to follow a top-bottom approach for the development of the structured colonies and other spheres then actually they were following the consensus of the majority of the people (Brady, 2014).
The Impact of Neoliberalism on Urban Planning in Queensland
This article also explains the concept of participatory democratic theory and its domains. The third aspect of the participatory democratic theory is controlled. The practice of control between the authorities, parties that are executing the task and the masses is an important exercise. The legislative structure emerged after the reforms fail in this regard. Right after the implementation of the policies, the local government downsized the number of employees working in the operational sector. This downsizing minimized the opportunity of a lean and mean communication that can be converted into a feedback chain. If we go by the assumptions and recommendations made by Brian then we can safely say that it is true that local authorities are more enabled after the reforms, however, their interaction with the individuals is on a decrease and it can become the reason of resentment in the coming future.
This article also tells us about the networked arrangements. A networked arrangement is a system where authorities and masses come together under an integrated arrangement and keep a constant check on the proceedings of the various schemes. The methods of the collaboration and the formal or informal nature of the collaboration hold the keywords in this arrangement. Here once again the reforms in the Queensland lacks, the nature of the integration is informal and this is why networked arrangements fail in collecting the viewpoint of the community.
Neoliberalism as a development model often fails in one department; this department is related to the dynamism of the change. Development activities at a larger scale often bring in a huge multiplier where many things in a given equation may change in the future. In the previous section of this study, we defined some links created by networked arrangements. We also figured out that these links are missing in the development model of Queensland (Passant, 2016). For instance, during the course of the reforms, the privatization of the government assets was a major bone of contention. It was very difficult for the authorities to choose the right candidate for the task (Tomlison, 2016).
The privatization also brings in the pressure of the profits on a system. Here we need to understand a simple fundamental of sustainability. Whenever a government body or a neutral body takes care of the urban planning or developmental planning then they fix the benefits of the individuals of the society as their main goal and profit. They reinvest the profit into the system once again to make more profit out of it. This adds strength in the development. It presents a balance sheet of the profit in front of the authorities and enables them to share a community earned well for the welfare of a weaker section of the society.
Challenges and Limitations of Neoliberalism as a Development Model
A private body, on the other hand, deducts this profit and distribute it in a network of resources working under the system. It also means that the fruit gained by an activity never comes back in the system again and support its sustainability. It also means that in order to start the next level of the reforms a system has to start it from a zero. This we can also see in the case of 2012 reforms of the Queensland we can see that the authorities want to convert Brisbane as Australia’s new world city in the coming future. However, the allocation of the resources for this economic change is unclear. The participation of various authorities in the plan is also unclear.
It is true that in the year 2012 the majority of the population was in the favor of certain reforms. However, the change in the dynamism of the reforms has presented a different picture for the coming future where this city has to start new development plans from scratch.
Backer, D. (2013). Doing adaptation differently? Does neoliberalism influence adaptation plan in Queensland? (Online).Available at: QUT, https://eprints.qut.edu.au/67595/. (Accessed: 12 March 2019).
Brady, M. (2014). Ethnographies of Neoliberal Governmentalities: from the neoliberal apparatus to neoliberalism and governmental assemblages. Foucault Studies, (Online).Available at: https://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/foucault-studies/article/view/4649. (Accessed: 12 March 2019).
Cotoi, C. (2015). Neoliberalism: A Foucauldian Perspective. Sciendo , (Online).Available at:https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/irsr/1/ 2/article-p109.xml. (Accessed: 12 March 2019).
Cross, H. (2017). Neoliberalism, labor power, and democracy – the sense of an ending. Review of African Political Economy, (Online).Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03056244.2017.1368607. (Accessed: 12 March 2019).
Duman, O. (2014). The rise and consolidation of neoliberalism in the European Union: A comparative analysis of social and employment policies in Greece and Turkey. European Journal of Industrial Relation, (Online).Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0959680113520274?journalCode=ejda. (Accessed: 12 March 2019).
Johnson, L. (2015). Re-imagining the practices of town, social and community planning in Australia: Opportunities for planning in neoliberal policy settings. Australian Planner, (Online).Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277249602_Re-imagining_the_practices_of_town_social_and_community_planning_in_Australia_Opportunities_for_planning_in_neoliberal_policy_settings. (Accessed: 12 March 2019).
Passant, J. (2016). Neoliberalism and Australia’s political divide. Independent Australia , (Online).Available at: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/neoliberalism-and-australias-political-divide2,9277. (Accessed: 12 March 2019).
Stevenson, T. (2014). The catalysts of small-town economic development in a free market economy: A case study of New Zealand. Local Economy Policy Unit, (Online).Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0269094214535022?journalCode=leca. (Accessed: 12 March 2019).
Tomlison, R. (2016). Metropolitan governance is the missing link in Australia’s reform agenda. (Online).Available at: The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/metropolitan-governance-is-the-missing-link-in-australias-reform-agenda-55872. (Accessed: 12 March 2019).
Venugopal, R. (2015). Neoliberalism as Concept. London School of Economics and Political Science, (Online).Available at: https://personal.lse.ac.uk/venugopr/venugopal2014augneoliberalism.pdf. (Accessed: 12 March 2019).
Wright, I. (2012). Australia: Reinvigorating planning and the planning system in Queensland – a neoliberal perspective – Part 2. Mondaq, (Online).Available at: https://www.mondaq.com/australia/x/386932/Building+Construction/Reinvigorating+planning+and+the+planning+system+in+Queensland+a+neoliberal+perspective+Part+2. (Accessed: 12 March 2019).
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