Le néolibéralisme, un terme qui désigne couramment la raison d’état contemporaine, est largement associé à un désinvestissement de l’État pour la cause sociale ainsi qu’à un discours de légitimation des disparités socio-économiques. Il s’agit, pour plusieurs, d’une idéologie qui ne considère pas la justice comme un idéal collectif à poursuivre. Un retour sur certains penseurs à qui l’on attribue la formulation des idées néolibérales permet toutefois de constater que la justice fut, au sein de leurs travaux, l’un des thèmes majeurs. L’objectif général de ce mémoire est donc de présenter la conception de la justice chez deux penseurs du néolibéralisme : le journaliste américain Walter Lippmann et l’économiste autrichien Friedrich A. von Hayek. Cette perspective comparée me permettra d’identifier ce que je nomme la «conception néolibérale» de la justice, conception qui s’articule à partir d’une compréhension singulière du marché. Dans le premier chapitre, je présente le problème central de la conception néolibérale de la justice, en abordant la posture épistémologique privilégiée par Hayek et Lippmann. Dans le deuxième chapitre, je présente certaines modalités de cette conception et soulève ses principales apories. Je soutiens aussi qu’une rupture survient entre Hayek et Lippmann autour de la notion de «responsabilité». Finalement, je compare la conception néolibérale de la justice avec la conception libertarienne présentée par Nozick. C’est à partir des critères de justice respectifs de chaque théorie que j’avance la distinction, au troisième chapitre, entre les deux conceptions pourtant similaires. Contrairement à une analyse courante qui fait du néolibéralisme un projet amoral, je soutiens que la reconnaissance de la dimension morale du discours néolibéral ouvre une fenêtre à partir de laquelle il devient possible de critiquer le projet sur des bases éthiques. C’est en identifiant la notion de justice à l’oeuvre dans le discours néolibéral contemporain et en l’inscrivant dans la tradition morale présentée dans le cadre de ce mémoire que nous sommes mieux à même de comprendre l’idéologie du néolibéralisme. / Neoliberalism, a term commonly used to describe the current paradigm of the state, is largely related to a disengagement of the state from issues of social welfare and is associated with the legitimization of socio-economic inequalities. For many critics, it also represents an ideology that does not consider justice as a collective ideal that should be pursued. This stands in contradiction with the fact that justice was a central theme in the works of many thinkers to whom we attribute the formulation of neoliberal thought. Considering this paradox, the main purpose of this Master’s thesis is to expose the conception of justice as expressed by two key neoliberal thinkers: the American journalist Walter Lippmann and the Austrian economist Friedrich A. von Hayek. This comparative perspective will allow me to single out what I call the "neoliberal conception" of justice, a conception that builds on a particular understanding of the market. In the first chapter, I present the central challenge of the neoliberal conception of justice by broaching the epistemological stance common to Hayek and Lippmann. In the second chapter, I present specific properties of this conception and discuss its principal blind spots. I also show that Hayek and Lippmann disagree when it comes to the notion of "responsibility". Finally, I compare the neoliberal conception of justice with that of libertarians, as presented by Robert Nozick in his work Anarchy, State and Utopia. In this third section, I argue that Hayek and Nozick’s respective criteria of justice drive a wedge between two otherwise rather similar conceptions. In contrast to a standard analysis that treats neoliberalism as an amoral project, I contend that recognition of the moral dimension of neoliberal discourse opens up a perspective from which it becomes possible to challenge the project on ethical grounds. Understanding the idea of justice underpinning contemporary neoliberalism, as rooted in the moral tradition presented in this essay, is necessary if we are to criticize this ideology on moral grounds.

Mozambique is undergoing intensive socio-economic reforms to reconstruct war damages and develop the nation. The reforms consist of economic liberalisation through structural adjustment and monetarist economic stabilisation, e.g. government withdrawal from economic activities, privatisation, deregulation, reduction of tariff levels on imports and tax on investments, cuts of expenditure on social services, restrictive credit system, focus on monetarism, increased taxation on individual income, etc. The nature of these reforms, on the surface, leads to morally questionable conditions. There is social chaos and disintegration, high indices of corruption, subtle recolonisation, decline of civil services, etc. At the bottom lie the market ethics and fundamentalist theological discourse by dint of which the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund deny historical consciousness, lack institutional memory, vest themselves with unquestionable international authority, dictate and impose policies without accountability for the social consequences. If there is any hope for Mozambicans, it lies in development ethics which relies heavily on the liberation motif, historical consciousness, and African Heritage. / Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Theological Ethics)

Mozambique is undergoing intensive socio-economic reforms to reconstruct war damages and develop the nation. The reforms consist of economic liberalisation through structural adjustment and monetarist economic stabilisation, e.g. government withdrawal from economic activities, privatisation, deregulation, reduction of tariff levels on imports and tax on investments, cuts of expenditure on social services, restrictive credit system, focus on monetarism, increased taxation on individual income, etc. The nature of these reforms, on the surface, leads to morally questionable conditions. There is social chaos and disintegration, high indices of corruption, subtle recolonisation, decline of civil services, etc. At the bottom lie the market ethics and fundamentalist theological discourse by dint of which the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund deny historical consciousness, lack institutional memory, vest themselves with unquestionable international authority, dictate and impose policies without accountability for the social consequences. If there is any hope for Mozambicans, it lies in development ethics which relies heavily on the liberation motif, historical consciousness, and African Heritage. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Theological Ethics)