Pargar programme: “What Is Neoliberalism?” with Arash Azizi and Alireza Salavati

In recent years, the term neoliberalism has become so widespread that it has at times overshadowed its cognates such as capitalism and liberalism. What is neoliberalism, and why has it gained such broad currency? Recently in Tehran, a group of protesting students displayed a slogan that identified neoliberalism as the enemy of discontented people from Chile to France, Lebanon, Iraq, and Tehran.

This slogan was a source of surprise for some political activists, but those who sympathize with leftist perspectives, whether Marxist left or Islamic left, were not astonished to see it. In their view, one can find many similarities between the policies of governments or regimes in the aforementioned countries, which have fueled greater poverty among the disadvantaged and even the middle classes. Is this the case? Are the protesters in Chile, France, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran fighting a common enemy? What is this enemy called neoliberalism that has become so far-reaching and at times seems to have surpassed capitalism, both in notoriety and in ruthlessness?

We ask this week's guests what neoliberalism is and what, in their opinion, is neoliberal about Iran's economy and society.

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Watch the debate on YouTube (video)

Download the podcast of this programme (audio)

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Pargar programme entitled “What Is Neoliberalism?”

Guests on this programme:

Arash Azizi; history researcher and Alireza Salavati; economics researcher

Programme host:

Dariush Karimi

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