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Neoliberalism as Religion: Sacralization of the Market and Post-Truth Politics

Mavelli, Luca (2020) Neoliberalism as Religion: Sacralization of the Market and Post-Truth Politics. International Political Sociology, 14 (1). pp. 57-76. ISSN 1749-5679. E-ISSN 1749-5687. (doi:10.1093/ips/olz021) (KAR id:74632)

Abstract

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, depictions of neoliberalism as religion, system of belief, and “kind of faith” have multiplied in an attempt to explain neoliberalism’s remarkable power and resilience. These accounts, however, have remained largely impressionistic. In this article, I interrogate the meanings, implications, and value of conceptualizing neoliberalism as religion and advance two main claims. First, the power of neoliberalism stems from being a rationality of government that continuously evokes religious meanings and significations. Neoliberalism displaces and redraws the boundary between secular and religious, and appropriates an aura of sacredness while concealing itself behind an authoritative secular rational façade. Second, one of the outcomes of the neoliberal “sacralization” of the market has been the emergence of so-called “post-truth politics.” The latter, I contend, can be conceptualized as a neoliberal “truth market” of news production, circulation, and consumption that is governed simultaneously by logics of commodification and belief. This analysis aims to contribute to existing debates on secularization, on neoliberalism’s resilience, and on post-truth politics by showing their interconnectedness through a critical approach that focuses on the disarticulation, rearticulation, and deployment of the categories of the secular/profane and sacred/religious in neoliberal regimes of power and knowledge.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1093/ips/olz021
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion
H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
J Political Science > JC Political theory
J Political Science > JZ International relations
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Politics and International Relations
Depositing User: Luca Mavelli
Date Deposited: 28 Jun 2019 09:30 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Dec 2022 04:45 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/74632 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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