Organic Neoliberalism: A.O. Hirschman’s ‘Exit Option’ and Grassroots Processes of Marketization

The article contributes to the literature on neoliberalism by offering an alternative account of processes of marketization to those that have centred their analysis on ideological or discursive formations. Drawing on Albert O. Hirschman’s 1970 book Exit, Voice and Loyalty , it identifies a phenomenon that we might call ‘organic’ neoliberalism, proceeding from population-level decisions for ‘exit’ over ‘voice’. The perspective seeks to complement rather than to reject or displace established accounts of neoliberal marketization, whether these tend more to a Marxist focus on interested agents or to a Foucauldian emphasis on neoliberal ‘rationalities’. At the same time, it suggests a more plural understanding of the causes of marketization, helping to explain certain unresolved paradoxes and to open up hopeful possibilities for social and political futures ‘after neoliberalism’.