Untangling the long history of neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is dead. Again. Yet the philosophy of the free market and the strong state has an uncanny capacity to survive, and even thrive, in times of crisis. Understanding neoliberalism’s longevity and its latest permutation requires a more detailed understanding of its origins and development.
This volume breaks with the caricature of neoliberalism as a simple, unvariegated belief in market fundamentalism and homo economicus. It shows how neoliberal thinkers perceived institutions from the family to the university, disagreed over issues from intellectual property rights and human behavior to social complexity and monetary order, and sought to win consent for their project through the creation of new honors, disciples, and networks. Far from a monolith, neoliberal thought is fractured and, occasionally, even at war with itself. We can begin to make sense of neoliberalism’s nine lives only by understanding its own tangled and complex history.
Author(s): Dieter Plehwe; Quinn Slobodian; Philip Mirowski
Publisher: Verso
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: x+348
Nine Lives of Neoliberalism
Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Lifeboat Neoliberalism
Chapter Outline
Part One: Neoliberal Science beyond Market Fundamentalism
1 Recoding Liberalism: Philosophy and Sociology of Science against Planning
Vienna
Clarity and Opacity in the Liberal Order
The Mantle of Science
Building a Neoliberal Research Program
Conclusion
2 On Skinning a Cat: George Stigler on the Marketplace of Ideas
Science Contra Democracy
Intellectual Freedom Contra Academic Freedom
Stigler Contra Friedman
Three Ways to Skin a Cat
3 The Law of the Sea of Ignorance: F. A. Hayek, Fritz Machlup, and other Neoliberals Confront the Intellectual Property Problem
F. A. Hayek and the Knowledge Problem
Fritz Machlup and the Invention of the Knowledge Economy
Explaining the Global Enclosure of Ideas: TRIPS against the NIEO
Conclusion: Three Ways of Historicizing Neoliberalism
Part Two: Neoliberal Subjectivity beyond Homo Economicus
4 Neoliberalism’s Family Values: Welfare, Human Capital, and Kinship
Family Responsibility and the American Poor Laws
From Private Family Responsibility to Public Responsibility for the Family
Neoliberalism and the Revival of Family Responsibility
The Revival of Family Responsibility in Practice: From Reagan to Clinton
Human Capital, Household Debt, and Family Responsibility
5 Schumpeter Revival? How Neoliberals Revised the Image of the Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship’s Underdog: Ludwig von Mises
Building on Mises: Kirzner Confronts Schumpeter
Günter Schmölders and the Image of the Entrepreneur
Incorporating Schumpeter: Herbert Giersch’s Unification of Schumpeter and Mises
Conclusion
6 Human Behavior as a Limit to and a Means of State Intervention: Günter Schmölders and Behavioral Economics
Alcohol, Taxation, and Price Policy—Schmölders in Weimar and the Third Reich
Economic Behavioral Research and Empirical Socioeconomics in Cologne
Behavioral Limits to State Intervention
Conclusion: Behavioral Economics and Neoliberalism
Part Three: Neoliberal Internationalism beyond the Washington Consensus
7 Embedded Early Neoliberalism: Transnational Origins of the Agenda of Liberalism Reconsidered
Introduction: The Walter Lippmann Colloquium and Early Neoliberalism
Early Neoliberalism Before and After the Walter Lippmann Colloquium
Embedding the Walter Lippmann Colloquium
Embedding Early Neoliberals into the Origins of “Macro-Dynamic Economics”
Conclusion
8 What Comes After Bretton Woods? Neoliberals Debate and Fight for a Future Monetary Order
From the Classical Gold Standard to Bretton Woods: The Historical Context
‘Pèlerinians Could Agree on Everything Save God and Gold’: The Internal Debates in the Postwar Decades
Conferences, Think Tanks and the Nixon Administration: Freedom Fighters in Action
Conclusion
9 The Neoliberal Ersatz Nobel Prize
The Real Nobel Prizes
The Bank of Sweden Goes Rogue
The Mont Pèlerin Connection
Some Episodes on the Road to a Neoliberal Economics
The 1974 Prize Awarded to Friedrich Hayek and Gunnar Myrdal
Other Economics Prizes Abandoned
Conclusion
Part Four: Neoliberal Influence beyond Reagan, Thatcher, and Pinochet
10 How the Neoliberal Think Tank Went Global: The Atlas Network, 1981 to the Present
At the Creation: The Origins of Atlas
Geographical Reach: From Controlled Expansion to Global Ambition
Modes of Enlisting: From ad hoc Identification to Organized Outreach
Mechanisms of Diffusion: From Tailored Interventions to Standardized Processes
Strategies of Stabilization: From Network Consolidation to Community Integration
Conclusion
11 Think Tank Networks of German Neoliberalism: Power Structures in Economics and Economic Policies in Postwar Germany
Ordoliberalism as Part of the Neoliberal Thought Collective
The Performative Footprint as a Measurement of the External Influence of Economists
History of German Neoliberalism in Economic Think Tank Networks
Infrastructures of German Neoliberalism in the Early Federal Republic of Germany
Infrastructures of German Neoliberalism During the Monetarist Turn in Germany
The Influence of German Neoliberalism During the Neoliberal Turn
The Long Shadow of German Neoliberalism in Economics
Conclusion
About the Contributors
Bibliography
