Neoliberal auditing reframed regulation as improvable rather than simply bad

Evidence

No longer would regulation be conceived as inevitably bad or inefficacious, but instead as improvable; econometric method was to be deployed not merely for convincing fellow economists, but for effecting this improvement. Through these newly developed neoliberal techniques of auditing, with the promise of more to come, Stigler sought to impose the views of an economic elite on the social sciences, and ultimately regulators. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 155

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in fracturing the caricature of neoliberalism — this shows an internal variety aiming at reformist audit, not pure deregulation. — connects to: Regulators can and should be audited scientifically rather than abolished — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 154; Regulatory-system innovation is needed to sustain capitalism’s profit logic — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 1139; Best practices exemplify neoliberal governance’s soft power and antipolitics — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 262 (+1 more)
• DEFINE: Clarifies the economists’ turn from condemning regulation to auditing it as an improvable technique.

Broader Connections

• Regulators can and should be audited scientifically rather than abolished #expands (0.92) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 154
• Regulatory-system innovation is needed to sustain capitalism’s profit logic #corroborates (0.75) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1139
• Best practices exemplify neoliberal governance’s soft power and antipolitics #exemplifies (0.74) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 262
• Financial innovation rhetoric frames new financial instruments as technological progress to legitimize deregulation #corroborates (0.72) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 953