Neoliberal economics rose to dominance through a policy vacuum, not popularity
Evidence
Neoliberal economists had been waiting in the wings for this opportunity, and their ideas flowed into the “policy vacuum” that now bedeviled both governments. Led by the Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek, fresh from his 1974 Nobel Prize, and his American counterpart Milton Friedman, who received the Nobel two years later, they had honed their radical free-market economic theory, political ideology, and pragmatic agenda throughout the postwar period at the fringe of their profession, under the shadow of Keynesian domination, and now their time had come. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 119
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to broader scholarship on neoliberal ascendancy (Harvey, Mirowski) and the contingent, crisis-driven adoption of free-market ideology rather than organic emergence. — connects to: Neoliberalism triumphed through fringe think tanks, not academic economics — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 377; The left’s reliance on orthodox economics enabled its co-optation by neoliberalism — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 901; Neoliberal theories succeed as policy rhetoric despite having scant evidence — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 425 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Neoliberal theories succeed as policy rhetoric despite having scant evidence
#corroborates(0.85) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 425 - Neoliberalism triumphed through political arguments against redistribution, not market-efficiency claims
#corroborates(0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 437 - Neoliberals abandoned economic measurement for institutional design after the 1930s
#complicates(0.78) — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 76 - Neoliberalism triumphed through fringe think tanks, not academic economics
#expands(0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 377 - The left’s reliance on orthodox economics enabled its co-optation by neoliberalism
#complicates(0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 901 - Neoliberalism survives crises through deliberate policy adaptability, not fixed doctrine.
#complicates(0.72) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 206