Neoliberalism pivoted from the economy to the framework encasing it

Evidence

By the late 1930s, though, the core of the neoliberal movements responded to the rise of what they called economic nationalism, especially in Central Eu­rope, by denying that the economy could be seen at all. Hayek’s position that the economy could not be apprehended by the senses was inconsistent with the emerging field of macroeconomics, but it also realigned the proj­ect of neoliberalism: from talking about the economy to talking about the framework that encased it. — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 88

Categorization

• DEFINE: Encapsulates the core conceptual shift of the project: from the economy as object to the institutional framework that contains it.
• XREF: connects to: Broader neoliberal shifts enabled austerity’s return to economic common sense — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 406; Monetarism mainstreamed Austrian and ordoliberal economic ideas — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 412; Neoliberalism’s Freiburg-school origins were anticartel and then mutated in Chile — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 764 (+26 more)

Broader Connections

• The economy functions as model, object, and project of neoliberal state rationality. #expands (0.90) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 107
• Neoliberals saw economic rights as a path toward totalitarianism #expands (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 163
• Neoliberalism defined itself in opposition to the constructed object of the economy #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1919
• Neoliberalism advanced a political, not merely economic, case for the competitive market #expands (0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 34
• Neoliberalism fused philosophy of science and political economy against totalitarianism #expands (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 53