Neoliberalism replaced Burkean conservatism with state-engineering schemes and mechanical freedom
Evidence
This, in turn, led to one manifestation of the engineering mentality to be co-opted by the neoliberal right, in that ambitious schemes to reengineer the state from within (fixed money growth rules at the Federal Reserve; school vouchers to privatize public education; abolition of the draft; institutionalized corporate oversight of governmental medical and pharmaceutical regulation; flexible exchange rates between national currencies enforced by transnational regulators) tended to displace classical Burkean gradualism and conservatism. In a further imitation of natural science, freedom was redefined as a purely mechanical “choice” that could be exercised in each and every sphere of social life. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 781
Categorization
- XREF: The claim that economics became a tool for top-down state reengineering complicates the usual ‘anti-state’ self-image of neoliberalism. — connects to: Neoliberals pursued an engineered order rather than expecting free markets to emerge naturally — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1907; Neoliberalism strengthens repressive state apparatuses rather than shrinking government — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1748; Neoliberalism centered on a strong state, not the classical night-watchman state — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2145 (+8 more)
Broader Connections
- Neoliberals pursued an engineered order rather than expecting free markets to emerge naturally
#corroborates(0.95) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1907 - Neoliberalism strengthens repressive state apparatuses rather than shrinking government
#expands(0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1748 - Neoliberalism centered on a strong state, not the classical night-watchman state
#expands(0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2145 - Neoliberalism seeks to transform and take over the state, not shrink it
#expands(0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 117 - Neoliberalism seeks to strengthen rather than shrink the state
#expands(0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2128 - Neoliberal rhetoric evokes free markets while quietly relying on a strong state
#expands(0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 26 - Neoliberalism’s social theory is fundamentally epistemological, recoding freedom as instrumental to independent orders
#expands(0.80) - Neoliberalism’s core break with classical liberalism is its constructivist view of the state
#corroborates(0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 776 - Neoliberalism differs from laissez-faire liberalism by using state intervention to create competition
#expands(0.80) - Neoliberalism redefined liberty as economic rather than political.
#expands(0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 380 - Neoliberalism replaces the welfare state with a traffic-cop state
#qualifies(0.70)