Postwar liberal revivalists framed state intervention as a neutral arbiter protecting market rules

Evidence

Rougier proposed pursuing this agenda through a new institution named, at the suggestion of Marcel Bourgeois, the Centre International d’Études pour la Rénovation du Libéralisme. … The goal of the center, Rougier revealed in a subsequent document, was to identify a role for the state that manifested “not the indifference of a spectator, but the neutrality of an arbitrator” who would protect “the rules of the game.” Its vision would be “progressive” rather than “conservative,” in the sense that it would promote a social vision based on “perpetual adaptation.” Rougier’s “Manifesto” for the center, which was lifted verbatim from a pre sen ta tion Walter Lippmann delivered at the “Colloque,” carved out a substantial role for state intervention, specifi cally identifying fi ve areas where tax revenues should be distributed: national defense, social insurance, social ser vices, education, and scientifi c research. … It was vital, Rougier added, that it be selffi nanced, relying on “subscriptions, grants, or donations” that were “impartial, unconditional, not imposing any moral or intellectual constraint.” — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 194

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the early ‘renovated liberalism’ position: state as neutral arbitrator enforcing rules, distinct from both laissez-faire and collectivism.
• XREF: This state-as-neutral-arbitrator framing connects directly to the standard neoliberal narrative that Mont Pèlerin later institutionalized; useful contrast with Hayek’s later constitutionalism. — connects to: Neoliberalism reversed the state’s protective role toward shielding markets — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 745; Neoliberalism differs from laissez-faire liberalism by using state intervention to create competition; The free market requires constant state interventionism to be established and maintained — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2137 (+3 more)
• SEED: The paradoxical line ‘not the indifference of a spectator, but the neutrality of an arbitrator’ is a crisp handle for an essay on how liberalism redefined rather than rejected the state.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism reversed the state’s protective role toward shielding markets #complicates (0.85) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 745
• Neoliberalism differs from laissez-faire liberalism by using state intervention to create competition #expands (0.80)
• The free market requires constant state interventionism to be established and maintained #corroborates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2137
• Ordoliberalism governs market rules but forbids steering market outcomes #qualifies (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 613
• The 1948 German state was legitimated via the free market mechanism #exemplifies (0.75) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 676