Neoliberalism, Populism and the Erosion of Popular Control in Contemporary Democracy

Abstract

This paper explores the role of neoliberalism, the world’s current economic system, in shaping the current democratic crisis and investigates the paradoxical relationship between free market and undemocratization. It argues that populism and populist autocracy are not the causes but symptoms of a deeper structural transformation. By linking neoliberal deregulation, monopolistic enterprises and the weakening of state authority, the paper shows how market autonomy can deprive average people of politico-economic power and freedom. Drawing on the Oceanic Games model, it explains how individually fragmented citizens become powerless against atomic players such as corporations and monopolies when the state no longer organizes popular interests into collective democratic power. The paper further argues that the 2008 economic crisis triggered public anger by exposing the inability of neoliberal institutions to protect ordinary citizens, which enabled populism to appear as an expressive response. It concludes that democracy cannot be restored by eliminating conflict, but by keeping political competition alive through democratic processes and allowing competing ideologies to check and balance one another.