Neoliberal Ideology and the Myth of the Self-Made Entrepreneur

Abstract

Neoliberal political leaders such as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1979-90) and President Ronald Reagan (1981-89) heralded entrepreneurs as capitalist heroes. Yet for the most part the policies they enacted did not help real entrepreneurs. Their ideology impaired their ability to promote entrepreneurship because they viewed support for entrepreneurs primarily in negative terms as the removal of government tax and regulatory burdens rather than in positive terms as the cultivation of a dynamic market infrastructure. This paper presents this argument in four steps, focusing on the U.S. case: 1) how neoliberal reforms embodied internal contradictions; 2) how reforms to market governance undermined entrepreneurship; 3) how other neoliberal policies also failed to support entrepreneurs; and 4) how policies that violated neoliberal principles, such as industry and technology policies, were actually more supportive of entrepreneurs.

Keywords: entrepreneur, neoliberal, regulation, deregulation, Reagan

JEL Classification: D4, D7, H1, H5, K2, L1, L4, L5, P16