Neoclassical economics and the Neoliberal Thought Collective are distinct movements

Evidence

Returning to our point of departure in this section, it really will turn out to be of paramount importance to keep the thought collectives of “neoclassical economics” and neoliberalism separate and distinct, for analytical purposes of understanding the nightmare of the current crisis. Neoclassical economics as a theory long predated the Neoliberal Thought Collective; it is only lately that it has shown signs of morbidity. As we shall argue, it has fallen to neoclassical economists to swarm over and incapacitate most serious attempts to isolate and diagnose why the crisis came as a shock and an enigma to those tasked with its understanding. The economists have haunted our dreams with their half-coherent struggles to describe and analyze the creeping dread. Yet it has been the neoliberals who have served as the advance shock troops for the zombie hordes, reconnaissance parties deploying their shock doctrines and shock therapies that rally the walking dead in their wake. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 71

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the key distinction between neoclassical economics as an older theory and the Neoliberal Thought Collective as a separate actor, central to Mirowski’s whole argument.
• XREF: Connects to Mirowski’s earlier book The Road from Mont Pelerin and the ‘Zombie economics’ critique of John Quiggin. — connects to: Neoclassical economists are the zombies, not the neoliberals themselves; Neoliberalism’s cohesion comes from thought-collective structure, not explicit doctrine — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 916; Neoliberalism is a self-consciously evolving thought collective, not a fixed catechism — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 141 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism’s cohesion comes from thought-collective structure, not explicit doctrine #qualifies (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 916
• Neoliberalism is a self-consciously evolving thought collective, not a fixed catechism #qualifies (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 141
• Neoliberal intellectuals formed a thought collective as a unit #qualifies (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 10
• Neoliberalism operates from a unified playbook despite surface variation #qualifies (0.72) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 917
• Neoliberalism is internally plural yet not formless #qualifies (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 10