Neoliberalism, inequality, and violence

Abstract

There was a drastic shift in the United States economic policy that began in the 1970s and 1980s. These policies can be ideologically categorized as neoliberal policies.1 The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between neoliberal policies and social tension through a mediating variable of economic inequality. The goal is to explore a potential connection between neoliberal policies and social tension from the 1970s and 1980s to the present. This study used a methodology that entailed creating a timeline of neoliberal policy implementation, then comparing it to historical data on inequality. Inequality data was collected from the Gini coefficient and index which are a statistical measurement of income and wealth inequality. Gini coefficient and index data was then compared to violent crime rates and racial hate crime rates in a correlational analysis. Violent crime rates and racial hate crime rates were used as an indicator for the variable of social tension. Data availability on racial violence was a major limiting factor to the original goal of the study. The analysis indicated that there is a temporal correlation between neoliberal policy implementation and growth in inequality, but a more complex relationship between inequality and social tension exists than originally hypothesized. There are additional extraneous variables influencing social tension that were not present in this analysis. Further examination of influential factors that contribute to - or reduce - social tension should be explored.