The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of torture, including physical and psychological abuse.

In the Introduction, Naomi Klein describes how the destruction of the city of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was used by right-wing policy makers and corporate interests to remake the city according to the precepts of neoliberal economist Milton Freidman. Klein calls this process “disaster capitalism.” 

Klein describes Friedman’s political economic approach to policy making, which she dubs the “shock doctrine.” Friedman argued that national economies should be given a “shock treatment” to usher in sweeping privatization of the public sector, while rolling back governmental social welfare and services. This system is often enforced through the use of literal torture, death, and disappearance for those who oppose these policies. Klein notes that this approach was used historically, as in General Augusto Pinochet’s Chile, and more contemporaneously to the writing of The Shock Doctrine, as in New Orleans, Sri Lanka, and Iraq.

Klein argues that the shock doctrine has been a defining characteristic of political economy and human rights violations around the world since the 1970s. She notes that while neoliberal policies are often imposed by force, in other instances, debt crises are leveraged to force governments to accept privatization.