Neoliberal auditing techniques aimed to redirect policy, not persuade economists

Evidence

The Journal of Law and Economics was the house organ for the neoliberal law and economics movement. The most important use of the arsenal of “measurement” techniques was not necessarily to persuade anyone of anything—but instead to redirect state policy. 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 Power’s ‘audit society’ literature and the broader theme of measurement as governance in the Mirowski/Plehwe collection. — connects to: Neoliberal governance reshapes scholarship to serve economic usefulness — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 626; Neoliberal theories succeed as policy rhetoric despite having scant evidence — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 425; Audit targets reshape institutional activity toward whatever is measured — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 93
• SEED: An essay angle: how cost-benefit analysis functioned as a Trojan horse for expert capture of regulation, distinct from both the deregulation caricature and the ‘rational persuasion’ ideal.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal governance reshapes scholarship to serve economic usefulness #expands (0.78) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 626
• Neoliberal theories succeed as policy rhetoric despite having scant evidence #corroborates (0.75) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 425