Neoliberalism lacks a stable meaning or historically specific constituency

Evidence

A few such Anglo-American reactions reveal the fears involved in nailing neoliberal pudding to the wall: … Part of the difficulty comes from [an] attempt to both distinguish and write about neoliberal thought and neoliberal politics in one account. And part of it comes from the very nomenclature of Neoliberalism itself, an overtheorized term that lacks a historically specific constituency and has been applied haphazardly to nearly every feature of the globalized modern world. (Burns 2014, 260) … [Angus Burgin’s] The Great Persuasion provides the most lucid account available of so-called “neoliberal” ideas that are associated with the Mont Pèlerin Society… . Nonetheless, “neoliberalism” has always been a slippery concept. As the term came in and out of use over the course of an oft-interrupted history, its meaning has varied, sometimes flipped on its head, and traded places with any number of alternative labels. (Brick 2014, 875) In . — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 17

Categorization

• DEFINE: Crisply establishes that ‘neoliberalism’ is an overtheorized, unstable label whose meaning has shifted and even inverted across its history, sometimes trading places with other terms.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s existing interest in how contested terms (like the earlier ‘moral panic’ definitional debates) shape analysis of political phenomena. — connects to: Neoliberalism differs from traditional conservatism in ways that shield it from accountability — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 2313; Neoliberalism may not cohere as a unified doctrine in actual practice. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 185; Ideological diversity is normal and not grounds for discarding the term neoliberalism — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 16 (+21 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism’s political strength partly derives from being poorly understood #corroborates (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 81
• Merely calling neoliberals fractured fails to define neoliberalism. #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2173
• Neoliberalism is a caricature of liberalism reduced to a theory of economic organization #complicates (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2121