The Political Theory of Neoliberalism

Currencies: New Thinking for Financial Times

by Thomas Biebricher

Neoliberalism has become a dirty word. In political discourse, it stigmatizes a political opponent as a market fundamentalist; in academia, the concept is also mainly wielded by its critics, while those who might be seen as actual neoliberals deny its very existence. Yet the term remains necessary for understanding the varieties of capitalism across space and time. Arguing that neoliberalism is widely misunderstood when reduced to a doctrine of markets and economics alone, this book shows that it has a political dimension that we can reconstruct and critique. Recognizing the heterogeneities within and between both neoliberal theory and practice, The Political Theory of Neoliberalism looks to distinguish between the two as well as to theorize their relationship. By examining the views of state, democracy, science, and politics in the work of six major figures―Eucken, Röpke, Rüstow, Hayek, Friedman, and Buchanan―it offers the first comprehensive account of the varieties of neoliberal political thought. Ordoliberal perspectives, in particular, emerge in a new light. Turning from abstract to concrete, the book also interprets recent neoliberal reforms of the European Union to offer a diagnosis of contemporary capitalism more generally. The latest economic crises hardly brought the neoliberal era to an end. Instead, as Thomas Biebricher shows, we are witnessing an authoritarian liberalism whose reign has only just begun.

Genres: Economics, Politics, Philosophy, Nonfiction, History

272 pages, Paperback

Published February 19, 2019

Reviews

[Nils · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intellectual history of the political ideas of Ropke, Eugene, Rustow, Hayek, Friedman, and Buchanan, focused especially on the differences between them and the antinomies within each. Concludes with a discussion of how the European Union represents the fullest realization of the ordoliberal vision, thus tacitly making the case for Lexit.

[Carli 🐞 · Rating 4 out of 5]

guter überblick über die wichtigsten denker der neo- und ordoliberalen Denkschule, die kritisch eingeordnet werden
insbesondere gefallen hat mir der zweite Teil des Buches, in dem Biebricher aufzeigt inwieweit die EU ein ordoliberales Projekt darstellt. hier wird ganz klar mit welchem zynismus deutschland in der eurozonenkrise agiert hat

[Eric Susak · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got halfway through and had to put it down. Approach this book only if you have studied quite a bit of political theory before and if you have a high degree of patience for hyper-referential priming before getting to the meat.

[Karolis Jonutis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author gives good amount of neoliberalism history and theoretical framework, but I recommend it especially to those who are interested in current trends of neoliberalisation in EU policy.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

German scholar Thomas Biebricher lays out the “neoliberal problematic” in this work of intellectual history and political theory, both abstract and applied. In the first two thirds of the book, he discusses six neoliberal thinkers, three German (Röpke, Eucken, and Rüstow), two American (Friedman and Buchanan) and one Anglo-Austrian (Hayek). He positions them in various configurations depending on their ideas on the state, on democracy, on science, etc., rather than discussing each in turn. It produces the impression of a sort of quadrille (sextille?) as they line up differently on the various issues. There’s a general trend line, though, between the German ordoliberals and the Anglo-American libertarian types. All of them placed a lot of chips on constitutional design in order to encase the market order away from political influence. But where the ordoliberals trusted centralizing institutions to do this, the libertarians (my distinction- Biebricher doesn’t make it) were more skeptical and believed in distributing power to bodies like states. The ordoliberals were worried (like Hannah Arendt!) about “mass man,” and wanted to find ways to de-massify by emphasizing institutions like churches and associations, where the Anglo-Americans didn’t go in as much for that kind of thing. In general, it leaves with the impression that the ordoliberals are understudied in English. I also wonder what this would have looked like if Von Mises and Rothbard were added to the mix, but Biebricher and other recent scholars of neoliberalism like Quinn Slobodian and Melinda. Cooper emphasize neoliberal approaches to government so strongly one wonders if those closer to anarcho-capitalism would count.

I don’t want to go into all the different ways the varying thinkers contrast each other, both because it’s a lot and because I read it a while ago (i.e. pre-pandemic), but there’s a lot of food for thought there. Biebricher then tries to apply what he’s laid out in the first two thirds to the crisis of the Eurozone, which to tell the truth I had a hard time following because fiscal politics just makes my eyes glaze over. Not a very responsible position, I know, but not a voluntary one either. All in all, a worthy addition to the literature on neoliberalism. ****’