Speaker
Description
This contribution expounds the role of neoliberal ideology in the socio-ecological polycrisis from the perspective of political and social psychology. Research on political-economic ideologies and system justification theory is reviewed, emphasizing crisis dynamics. Polycrisis is conceptualized as compounding ecological, economic, political, and social contradictions, culminating in threats to liberal democracies by right-wing populist movements. Validated in Austrian and German samples was the neoliberal ideological beliefs questionnaire, comprising dimensions of individualism (self-reliance, self-interest), competition (outperforming others), and instrumentality (humans as resources). Associations exist with group-based enmity, social dominance orientation, political left-right self-placement, and support for right-wing populist parties. One study confirms neoliberal beliefs as system justification, counteracting environmental consciousness by precluding climate-protective behavior. Another study shows that neoliberal beliefs undermine solidarity and civic engagement for human rights of refugees, mediated by moral disengagement from their treatment (e.g., push-backs, incarceration). In an interview study, individuals in precarious economic situations endorsed neoliberal practices contradicting their social interests, alongside xenophobic stereotypes. Economic threats are projected onto migrants, scapegoated for lacking self-reliance (individualism), appropriating resources (competition), and insufficient contributions (instrumentality). Results demonstrate how neoliberal ideology undermines ecological, social, and democratic attitudes and behaviors necessary for socio-ecological transformation. Social inequalities and tensions are reproduced in the mindsets of those deprived by the system. The amalgamation of free-market fundamentalism with authoritarian, crypto-fascist themes explains rising right-wing populism in late-neoliberal societies in perpetual crisis.
| Keywords | neoliberal ideological beliefs, polycrisis, climate crisis, refugee crisis, crisis of European democracies, right-wing populism, system justification theory, political psychology |
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| severin.hornung@uibk.ac.at |