<i>Ever hear of the PDs? Ever hear of neo-classical economics and its dominance in Irish universities? Ever hear of privatization, liberalization of the labour market?</i>
This is my point. The term is vague and there are a number of competing definitions kicking around out there. Vague terms like that do not add to the pool of knowledge.
Ireland also has social partnership and areas like the energy market are far more regulated than any self-respecting neo-liberal would allow. These are classical <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordoliberalism" rel="nofollow">ordo-liberal</a> characteristics rather than neo-liberal.
Austerity, by the by, has been said to be the upshot of ordo-liberal thinking rather than 'neo-liberal'.
And I never said that ideology or neo-liberalism did not exist - I simply said that the terms currently deployed were used carelessly and contributed little to any debate.
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