A 1981 policy paper by a German minister triggered the country’s shift from Keynesianism

Evidence

In 1981, economics minister Otto Graf Lambsdorff (Free Democratic Party, FDP) published a seminal paper entitled “Manifesto of the Market Economy: Concept for a Policy to Overcome Weak Growth Performance and Reduce Unemployment”—the so-called Lambsdorff Paper—where he stressed that the government interfered too much in the free market and suggested radical labor market reforms, strict budget consolidation, and deregulation policies. … Together with Tietmeyer he authored the memorandum for Otto Graf Lambsdorff. The Lambsdorff Paper marked the end of the social-liberal coalition in Germany and especially of the (Keynesian) economic concept of macroeconomic management (Globalsteuerung). It can therefore be interpreted as inaugurating a politico-economic paradigm shift. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 637

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader history of the 1980s ‘neoliberal turn’ across Western economies — the Thatcher/Reagan moment, and the German Sonderweg where the turn happened via a policy paper rather than an electoral mandate. — connects to: Expansionary-austerity theory traces directly to the 1981 German Council of Economic Advisors — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 456; The June 2010 G20 marked the global policy shift from Keynesian stimulus to austerity — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 13

Broader Connections

• Expansionary-austerity theory traces directly to the 1981 German Council of Economic Advisors #qualifies (0.75) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 456
• The June 2010 G20 marked the global policy shift from Keynesian stimulus to austerity #corroborates (0.70) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 13