Neoliberalism and the west are not identical

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/16/neoliberalism-and-the-west-are-not-identical

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Pankaj Mishra’s article (Comment, 14 October) is an important warning about the unsustainable costs of global neoliberalism. But it is also based on a number of misconceptions – a case of Orientalism in reverse. There is no coherent western model of free-market capitalism and liberal democracy which is being imposed on the rest of the world. The west has produced capitalism, socialism, liberalism, and nazism and fascism. Undoubtedly, the US and its allies have aggressively pushed a distinctly neoliberal model on the rest of the world for the past three decades and have engaged in covert and overt wars to make the world safe for capitalism – but democracy has never been a major concern. Variants of capitalism are now adopted by non-western powers which are also exporting it to other parts of the world (China in Africa). Likewise, Latin America, the main crucible of resistance to neoliberal capitalism is largely inspired by Bolivarian socialism which is itself influenced by Western ideas (Bolivar was a great reader of Enlightenment philosophy).

Many societies are deeply divided over questions of democracy, religion, identity and social justice. In this sense the main battle lines of the contemporary world are not civilisational, but ideological and political.Hadi EnayatLondon