Neoliberal thinkers warned that excessive privatization could itself block innovation.

Evidence

It follows from a commonsense understanding of neoliberalism that state ownership of property would be inefficient, but it is also true from within neoliberal thought that if you privatize too much or incorrectly, knowledge could also be misallocated, blocked, or left stagnant. MPS president and Bank of Sweden Prize winner James M. Buchanan suggested that expansion of patents on basic scientific research, for example, could lead to a “tragedy of the anti-commons”—where too many competing property claims impeded efficiency and innovation. As scholars point out, there is the danger, even from a utility-maximizing perspective, of “too much property.” — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 175

Categorization

• XREF: Buchanan’s anti-commons directly inverts the Hardin commons-tragedy frame; worth tracing how internal neoliberal debate used it. — connects to: Innovation is modeled as a quasi-volcanic monopoly that erodes with imitation. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 297; Early neoliberals treated public regulation as a greater threat than private monopoly — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 744; Within neoliberal thought itself there is a recognized danger of too much property. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 175

Broader Connections

• Early neoliberals treated public regulation as a greater threat than private monopoly #complicates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 744