Neoliberalism was both a class-power project and a coherent ideology.
Evidence
One of the continuing questions regarding neoliberalism is whether it is a project to restore class power or a coherent ideology. We have seen that it was both. In the years after 1945, neoliberals worked with and alongside the International Chamber of Commerce to defend the threatened privileges of a specific class. Their imagination, however, exceeded that of their partners. Their radicalism always bore the potential of taking on a life of its own. Even though they worked with organizations grounded in internationalism, the globalism of the neoliberals often tended toward a goal that their hosts (and funders) did not necessarily share. — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 478
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: Adjudicates the long-standing historiographical debate over whether neoliberalism is a class project or an ideology — the resolution (both, but the ideology exceeding the class goal) is a genuine synthesis with legs.
- XREF: The ‘neoliberalism as class project vs. ideology’ question is a staple of the literature (e.g., David Harvey, Philip Mirowski) — this passage stakes an explicit position. — connects to: A single heroic bourgeois ideology is simultaneously liberating and class-pleading — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 746; Neoliberalism was an ideological veneer only loosely resembling actual capitalism — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 220; Theorists explain neoliberalism’s cohesion through class interest, phases, or rhetoric. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 121 (+8 more)
Broader Connections
- Neoliberalism was an ideological veneer only loosely resembling actual capitalism
#contradicts(0.85) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 220 - Neoliberalism was a flexible project, not a fixed doctrine with essential content
#qualifies(0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 115 - Theorists explain neoliberalism’s cohesion through class interest, phases, or rhetoric.
#corroborates(0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 121 - Neoliberalism is a governing rationality, not just economic policy or ideology.
#qualifies(0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 14 - Neoliberalism governs as a normative form of reason, not ideology or material force.
#qualifies(0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 219 - Neoliberalism is fundamentally an epistemological project, not merely a political or economic one
#complicates(0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 900 - Neoliberalism’s founders believed ideological change demanded deliberate collective organization
#expands(0.80) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 218 - Neoliberalism’s invisibility was manufactured by both its architects and its critics
#complicates(0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 77 - Neoliberal development hegemony emerged from both opportunity structures and intellectual mobilization.
#corroborates(0.70) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1753