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Neoliberal Ideology and the Myth of the Self-Made Entrepreneur

Steven K. Vogel (University of California, Berkeley, USA)

Entrepreneurialism and Society: New Theoretical Perspectives

ISBN: 978-1-80382-658-5, eISBN: 978-1-80382-657-8

Publication date: 22 September 2022

Abstract

Neoliberal political leaders such as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990) and President Ronald Reagan (1981–1989) heralded entrepreneurs as capitalist heroes, yet for the most part, the policies they enacted did not help real entrepreneurs. Their image of a self-made entrepreneur who thrives in the absence of government action was fundamentally flawed. Their ideology impaired their ability to promote entrepreneurship because they viewed support for entrepreneurs primarily in negative terms as the removal of government tax and regulatory burdens rather than in positive terms as the cultivation of a dynamic market infrastructure. This article presents this argument in four steps, focusing on the US case: (1) how neoliberal reforms embodied internal contradictions; (2) how reforms to market governance undermined entrepreneurship; (3) how other neoliberal policies also failed to support entrepreneurs; and (4) how policies that violated neoliberal principles, such as industry and technology policies, were actually more supportive of entrepreneurs.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Howard Aldrich, Robert Eberhart, Robert Fannion, Sunny Malhotra, and Konrad Posch for comments; Jake Brugger and Sunny Malhotra for research assistance; and the Il Han New Chair at the University of California, Berkeley for research funding. He also benefited from questions and comments at the Workshop on “Reversing the Arrow: How Entrepreneurship Affects Society,” held virtually, August 13–14, 2020; and the Comparative Politics & Political Economy Webinar, University of California, Santa Barbara, April 1, 2021.

Citation

Vogel, S.K. (2022), "Neoliberal Ideology and the Myth of the Self-Made Entrepreneur", Eberhart, R.N., Lounsbury, M. and Aldrich, H.E. (Ed.) Entrepreneurialism and Society: New Theoretical Perspectives (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 81), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 77-99. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20220000081005

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited