Declarations that neoliberalism is dead have recurred for decades

Evidence

Since its inception, neoliberalism has hinged on two forces tugging in opposite directions: a scientific program based on a strict respect for the scientific method, and strategic appeals to morals and values when results did not point to an agreeable consensus. As a consequence, the neoliberal attempt to recode liberalism left an ambiguous legacy. On the one hand, the neoliberal discourse of the superiority of the market, the rule of law, and the rejection of economic intervention became firmly anchored in a coherent research program. On the other hand, the project to redefine liberalism along the lines of a liberal science collapsed because of its contradictions with the ideological goal of controlling the production and diffusion of theoretical knowledge. Accordingly, the neoliberal ideological project superseded the scientific intuitions advanced by its early promoters. From a critical program designed to contest the opportunity of economic intervention, it had progressed through an epistemological recoding of liberalism. Following the success of The Road to Serfdom, Hayek further elaborated an ideological strategy in which a closed circle of intellectual producers feed their ideas to the public through strategically placed intermediaries. As well as their democratic aspirations, the cognitive capacity of the masses was deemed trivial compared with the intellectual influence of the elites, which neoliberals began to purposefully target. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 92 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Neoliberalism’s scientific program collapsed under its own ideological contradictions — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 92; Neoliberalism was finished as a project by 2015 even as it lurched on — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1840; Neoliberalism persists as undead zombie beyond its discrediting — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2238 (+2 more)

Related

• Neoliberalism’s scientific program collapsed under its own ideological contradictions (similarity 0.92)
• Neoliberalism pairs a scientific self-image with elite-directed ideological strategy, not democratic science (similarity 0.86)
• Neoliberalism persists as undead zombie beyond its discrediting (similarity 0.85)
• Neoliberals themselves deny their doctrine ever existed while others prematurely proclaimed its death (similarity 0.84)
• Neoliberalism endures as a zombie ideology that resisters cannot easily kill (similarity 0.84)
• Neoliberalism’s critics and defenders now both embrace the label (similarity 0.83)
• Neoliberalism was a flexible project, not a fixed doctrine with essential content (similarity 0.83)
• Neoliberalism was finished as a project by 2015 even as it lurched on (similarity 0.83)
• Neoliberalism is best understood as open questions with a constant goal (similarity 0.82)
• Neoliberalism’s opponents, not its own theory, collapsed after the crisis (similarity 0.82)
• Neoliberalism evolved by sloughing off earlier liberal doctrines without acknowledging reversals (similarity 0.82)
• Neoliberalism’s deliberate epistemic inconsistencies enabled its long-term success (similarity 0.81)
• Neoliberals conceded that liberalism itself is a socially constructed ideology rather than pure science (similarity 0.81)
• Neoliberalism’s survival after 2008 meant losing its unchallenged narrative, not its policy program. (similarity 0.81)
• Neoliberalism is a contested but usable analytical category rather than a fixed ideology (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism’s scientific program collapsed under its own ideological contradictions #qualifies (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 92