Analytical utility of periodizing capitalist history: Neoliberalism, social welfare spending, and income inequality in the United States

Abstract

This article critiques policies aimed at income redistribution within the framework of Marx’s critique of political economy. The ‘Neoliberal’ characterization of capitalist history, the tendency to divide capitalism into distinct sub-periods or phases, continues to play a significant role for describing changes to social policy in the United States. Prominent academics and public intellectuals continue to hold spirited debates over whether or not welfare spending in the United States has become less generous over the years, owing to increasing ‘neoliberalization’ of the American economy. This mixed-methods research paper analyzes trends in social welfare spending and income inequality for the United States. To supplement the analysis, a novel dataset on Distributional National Accounts from the Bureau of Economic Analysis is also analyzed. Evidence suggests previous concerns in the literature are unfounded and are not borne out by empirical evidence.