Neoliberalism is a reprogramming of liberal governmentality, not a reaction to capitalist crisis

Evidence

Neither a stage of capitalism nor formulated in response to crises of capitalism, neoliberalism for Foucault was an intellectually conceived and politically implemented “reprogramming of liberal governmentality” that first took hold in postwar Germany and was increasingly in evidence in other parts of Europe at the time of Foucault’s lectures on the subject in the late 1970s. Understood as a distinctive form of reason that, when it becomes ascendant, will remake liberal governing and government, neoliberalism may comprise a variety of local instantiations and a range of different policies or techniques while hewing to discernible norms and principles that consistently distinguish it from classical economic and political liberalism, as well as from Keynesianism, social democracy, or state-owned and state-controlled economies. In other words, the norms and principles of neoliberal rationality do not dictate precise economic policy, but rather set out novel ways of conceiving and relating state, society, economy, and subject and also inaugurate a new “economization” of heretofore noneconomic spheres and endeavors. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 83

Categorization

• XREF: Economization of noneconomic spheres connects directly to Brown’s broader arguments about homo oeconomicus and to Foucault’s Birth of Biopolitics lectures. — connects to: Web 2.0 technologies produce the neoliberal subject through self-regulation, not state coercion. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 37; Crises recurring across eras implies neoliberalism may not cause them — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 1787; Neoliberalism is best understood as open problems, not fixed solutions — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 162 (+20 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how does ‘economization of heretofore noneconomic spheres’ apply to the family, education, and intimate life specifically — the sites Brown returns to later in the book?

Broader Connections

• Foucault frames neoliberalism as a remaking of liberal governmentality rather than an economic break #corroborates (0.95) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 87
• Neoliberalism activates the state for the economy rather than withdrawing it. #expands (0.85) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 106
• Neoliberalism centered on a strong state, not the classical night-watchman state #expands (0.82) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2145
• Neoliberalism governs as a normative form of reason, not ideology or material force. #expands (0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 219
• Neoliberalism strengthens repressive state apparatuses rather than shrinking government #expands (0.72) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1748