Is neoliberalism consistent with individual liberty? Friedman, Hayek and Rand on education employment and equality

Irit Keynan ()
Additional contact information
Irit Keynan: College for Academic Studies

International Journal of Teaching and Education, 2016, vol. 4, issue 4, 30-47

Abstract: In their writings, Milton Friedman, Friedrich August von Hayek and Ayn Rand have been instrumental in shaping and influencing neoliberalism through their academic and literary abilities. Their opinions on education, employment and inequality have stirred up considerable controversy and have been the focus of many debates. This paper adds to the debate by suggesting that there is an internal inconsistency in the views of neoliberalism as reflected by Friedman, Hayek and Rand. The paper contends that whereas their neoliberal theories promote liberty, the manner in which they conceptualize this term promotes policies that would actually deny the individual freedom of the majority while securing liberty and financial success for the privileged few. The paper focuses on the consequences of neoliberalism on education, and also discusses how it affects employment, inequality and democracy.

Keywords: Neoliberalism; liberty; free market; equality; democracy; social justice; education; equal opportunities; Conservativism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B20 B31 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://iises.net/international-journal-of-teachin ... blication-detail-777
https://iises.net/international-journal-of-teachin ... etail-777?download=3

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sek:jijote:v:4:y:2016:i:4:p:30-47

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Teaching and Education is currently edited by Klara Cermakova, Tana Kubatova

More articles in International Journal of Teaching and Education from International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Klara Cermakova ().