Popis: |
The collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991 eliminated the Cold War imperatives that had maintained America’s fragile class compromise and narrowed the ideological space for political dissent. The triumph of the neoliberal order was secured not by the Republican Party that had nurtured its ascent but by the acquiescence of Democratic president Bill Clinton to the policy regime they had established. Clinton became the Democrats’ Eisenhower under the influence of political strategist Dick Morris and senior cabinet members who favored supply-side economics, deregulation of telecoms and financial industries, and a balanced budget. By the end of the 1990s, neoliberals within the Treasury, including Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, had decisively outmaneuvered more progressive reformers such as Labor Secretary Robert Reich. Clinton and his fellow New Democrats produced a new ideological fusion that combined a dynamic high-tech economy, free market ideology, and multiculturalism. |