Anti-New Deal businessmen funded and networked early neoliberalism, contradicting the marginality myth

Evidence

But the early history of the Mont Pèlerin Society suggests that intellectual critics of New Deal liberalism—especially those who were most active in developing the network of neoliberal thinkers—did not entirely lack support among businessmen. For within the American business community, opposition to the New Deal and to Keynesian political economy did not cease with the end of World War II. On the contrary, a small community of business leaders who had been ardent opponents of the New Deal during the 1930s continued their political work in the 1940s, the 1950s, and beyond. This group, which included retired executives, businessmen from small companies, and management at larger corporations, tried to fight the power of New Deal liberalism in a variety of ways—by struggling to change labor law to make it less sympathetic to unions; by disseminating strategies companies could use to fight unionization of their employees; and ultimately by supporting candidates who could take their message into electoral politics. This small community of businessmen was delighted to learn of the work of Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, and they helped to form a supportive network for the Austrian thinkers in America. A few even became deeply involved with the Mont Pèlerin Society (MPS), providing financial support that was critical for the MPS’s growth and development. Although these businessmen were not exactly neoliberal in their orientation—they lacked a high level of theoretical sophistication, and, in general, they did not develop a perspective geared toward using the state to further the power of the market—they found much to identify with in the MPS project and the work of Hayek and Mises. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1439

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s study of neoliberal network origins — connects to later business-funded think tanks and the corporate sponsorship of free-market ideology. — connects to: Neoliberalism’s doctrine was shaped from its start by business patrons — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 87; Early neoliberalism included lawyers, industrialists, and bankers, not just economists. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 367; Anti-New Deal business propaganda and Cold War totalitarianism fears jointly reshaped US regulatory policy — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 346 (+3 more)
• SEED: An essay on how the ‘isolated genius’ self-mythology of intellectual movements coexists with real corporate sponsorship — the tension between how a movement narrates itself and how it was actually financed.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism emerged from practical business advocacy, not abstract theory #corroborates (0.85) — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 119