“A Means to an End”: Neoliberalism and State Processes in New Zealand

The New Zealand experiment is gaining international notoriety, simultaneously lauded by the Right and decried by the Left as an extreme example of neoliberalism and economic restructuring. The last decade has seen a dramatic shift from Keynesian welfarism to neoliberalism as the basis for state policies, and the transformation of a highly protected domestic into an open network economy oriented towards the economic flows of the Pacific Rim. The impetus for this transformation is found in the reform program initiated by the fourth Labour government (1984-1990).