Neoliberal development economists joined humanitarian NGOs in 1980s France.

Evidence

In early 1985, the development economist Peter Bauer used a speaking opportunity at a Paris colloquium to reiterate the central tenets of the neoliberal development discourse he had done so much to shape. Bauer, aptly described by the Economist magazine as being to foreign aid what Friedrich Hayek was to socialism, told his audience that the so-called ‘Third World’ comprised 130 countries with nothing in common other than requesting and receiving help from ‘the West’. In a period of neoliberal ascendancy, criticisms of aid and of demands for postcolonial redistribution of wealth were increasingly common. What made this particular speech different was the fact that Bauer was speaking at the inaugural colloquium of a new political foundation, Liberté sans Frontières (LSF), established by the French leadership of the respected humanitarian organisation Médecins sans Frontières. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 377

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s reading purpose on how human-rights discourse and neoliberal market ethics converged; also echoes the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ essay’s theme of discourse as political signaling. — connects to: Neoliberalism’s 1980s breakthrough rested on decades of prior institutional groundwork — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 128; Neoliberal development economics emerged parallel to, not after, mainstream development theory — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1269; Humanitarian NGOs like LSF emerged partly to discredit Third Worldist economic critique — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 394

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism’s 1980s breakthrough rested on decades of prior institutional groundwork #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 128
• Humanitarian NGOs like LSF emerged partly to discredit Third Worldist economic critique #expands (0.75) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 394
• Neoliberal development economics emerged parallel to, not after, mainstream development theory #expands (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1269