Smith, Naturalism, Constructivism, Neoliberalism

"Moreover, the idea and practice of responsibilization - forcing the subject to become a responsible self-investor and self-provider - reconfigures the correct comportment of the subject from one naturally driven by satisfying interests to one forced to engage in a particular form of self-sustenance that meshes with the morality of the state and the health of the economy. Thus, neoliberalism differs from classical economic liberalism not only in that there ceases to be what Adam Smith formulated as an 'invisible hand' forging a common good out of individual, self-interested actions, and not only because the naturalism is replaced by constructivism, although both of these are the case. Equally important, reconciling individual with national or other collective interests is no longer the contemporary problem understood to be solved by markets. Instead, the notion of individuals naturally pursuing their interests has been replaced with the production through governance of responsibilized citizens who appropriately self-invest in a context of macroeconomic vicissitudes and needs that make all of these investments into practices of speculation." Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution (Brooklyn, NY: Zone Books, 2015), 84.