LAUSR

The book’s broad focus, however, comes at the cost of understanding country-level dynamics that may be critical to understanding neoliberalism’s staying power and countries’ susceptibility to state capitalism. For example, the balance of power between neoliberal-leaning and populist forces can explain why an erstwhile neoliberal poster child such as Poland did not jump on the avant-garde flat tax bandwagon. The symbolic currency of neoliberalism as anti-communist may also continue to play a role in other places. That said, no matter the political circumstances, one would expect that the structural constraint of reliance on external capital, highlighted by Appel and Orenstein, will persist. Informed by their illuminating work, the question can now turn to what other approaches may signal “openness for business” to foreign investors and to international institutions steeped in the neoliberal model.