Question

If a populist government succeeded one that believed in neo-liberalism, what two changes in policy would you expect the government to make?

Answer 1

Post the financial crisis of 2008 there is a rise of populist parties in both developed and developing countries. The concept of populism has been used to describe political actors of both the right and the left, conservative as well as progressive, religious or secular. Populism is not a full-blown ideology like liberalism, conservatism or socialism. It is a thin-centred discourse rooted in the idea of popular will and is comfortable aligning itself to any ideology that could be broadly appealing to a majority.
But, if populist government who believes in neo-liberalism comes to power following are the likely policy changes.

1. One of the better ways to describe neo-liberalism is market fundamentalism. It means the market is GOD. so governments policies will be favouring privatisation.
2. Further Neo-Liberal policies can be described through the principles given by John Williamson known as Washington consensus:
a. Reduce the fiscal deficit
b. More industry reforms
c. Market determined interest rate
d. Trade liberalisation
e. Promotion of FDI etc.

Hope this helps!