Neoliberals rejected technocratic social engineering as utopian and falsely deterministic

Evidence

On the one hand, neoliberals argued, any theory of historical development wrongfully applied lawful assumptions to the contingency of history, thereby confusing prophecy and prediction, and mistaking explanation by general principles with the knowledge of deliberate direction. On the other hand, engineers and planners suffered from a “slavish imitation of the method and language of Science” which they used for the purpose of “social midwifery.” By denying the fundamental uncertainty in social processes, and the logical impossibility of controlling social wholes, Polanyi contended that their mentality veered towards “utopian engineering,” and was the inspiration for “grandiose planning.” The application of statistics and mathematics to social problems was inadequate because of epistemological complications linked with the use of probabilities for predictions. To Rougier, “social engineering” and the use of econometrics amounted to a “technocratic conceit,” whose method “to put everything into equations” was stimulated by a metaphysical belief in universal determinism incompatible with the fundamental indeterminacy found at the atomic level. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 84

Categorization

• XREF: Complements the reader’s existing knowledge of Hayek’s ‘scientism’ critique and the calculation debate. — connects to: Neoliberal anti-planning arguments rest on the dispersal and tacit character of social knowledge. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 71; Wartime neoliberals attacked applied natural-science planning as ‘scientism’ without attacking science itself — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 83; 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
• DEFINE: Defines ‘utopian engineering’ and ‘technocratic conceit’ as neoliberal polemical categories.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals pursued an engineered order rather than expecting free markets to emerge naturally #contradicts (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1907