Cogent Social Sciences 2024, VOL. 10, NO. 1, 2350159 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2024.2350159
Politics & International Relations | Research Article
Rereading the victory discourses of liberalism—’the end of ideology’ and ‘the end of history’ (finalisation theories)—alongside the 2008 financial crisis Atıl Cem Çiçek Department of Political Science, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Kafkas University, Kars, Türkiye ABSTRACT
ARTICLE HISTORY
The discourse of ‘the end of ideology’ put forward by Bell in 1960 was centred on the notion that an ideological consensus had been reached, especially in developed countries, and that ideologies were no longer necessary given that economic growth had replaced political growth as the predominant subject of debate. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of real socialism in parallel to the breakup of the USSR, the discourse that liberalism constitutes the dominant and only paradigm rose dramatically in prominence alongside the neoliberal policies implemented following the economic crisis in the 1970s. Undoubtedly, one of the most important works in this trend was the ‘end of history’ thesis put forward by Fukuyama in the 1990s. This study is rooted in the need to reconsider these ‘finalisation’ theses founded on liberalism’s supposed lack of alternatives in the aftermath of the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. Offering a critique of historical economic-political liberalism, it aims to demonstrate the failure of these ending theses, both of which are still accepted and promoted by defenders of neoliberalism. This study employs historical and hermeneutic qualitative research methods. Its most important finding is that neoliberalism cannot be both a political and an economic ‘end’.
Received 7 October 2022 Revised 20 April 2024 Accepted 28 April 2024 KEYWORDS
Capitalism; crisis; finalisation; liberalism; neoliberalism; the end of history; the end of ideology REVIEWING EDITOR
Robert Read, Economics, University of Lancaster, Lancaster, UK SUBJECTS
Political Ideologies; Liberalism; Modern Political Theory; International Political Economy; International Politics
Introduction The end of history certainly does not refer to the cessation of time or historiography. Rather, from a political perspective, it refers to the finalisation of human development at a certain level of social, political and economic maturity. At such an end, it is supposedly unnecessary to pursue an alternative to the status quo, as the current system is optimal. Proponents of this view argue that human development and progress have largely been completed and that large-scale political change, transformation and revolution are outdated notions. In the twentieth century, the most important of such finalising discourses were the ‘end of ideology’ and the ‘end of history’. The ‘end of ideology’ discourse put forward during the Cold War—in the aftermath of the Second World War—was based on the notion that the system in place in the US-centred Western Bloc was the most ideal among all existing systems, meaning it was no longer necessary to discuss ideology. Rooted in the fact that the West was ‘prosperous’, proponents argued that the greatest possible ideal had been reached and that vicious ideological debates should be left aside. However, even today, the existence and determination of ideologies are important, even if not absolute. Although their importance and determining functions are different, ideologies are a part of the human equation across every geographical region in the world, regardless of whether they are called developed, undeveloped, underdeveloped or developing. As Örs (2009, pp. 39–42) points out, ideologies that provide a sense of inner harmony, comfort and coherence—that help individuals to make sense of a complex world and give them an ‘identity’—will continue to exist in developed countries for as long as human beings’ problems with CONTACT Atıl Cem Çiçek atilcemcicek@yahoo.com Kafkas University, Kars, Türkiye
Department of Political Science, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences,
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.