The late-1970s neoliberal export-oriented development paradigm was conceived in the 1950s

Evidence

In Chapter 7, Dieter Plehwe observes how the heritage of colonial economics on the one hand and the overriding security concerns of the early Cold War on the other hampered the development of a neoliberal perspective on development. Early on, MPS analysts nurtured doubts both about the opportunity of independence and free markets in the developing world, and not just a few MPS members made a case for continued colonialism both explicitly and implicitly. But modernization theory and (state-led) industrialization strategies were soundly rejected, and it is possible to observe rudimentary forms of the export-oriented development paradigm neoliberals successfully advocated during the late 1970s. … Only toward the end of the 1950s did Peter Bauer clarify a vision of a more complete neoliberal perspective on development: Bauer contradicted his fellow MPS members with regard to the existence of an entrepreneurial class in developing countries and planted seeds of doubt with regard to the effectiveness of providing state development aid in the fight against Soviet expansion. Based on such evidence, Chapter 7 concludes that the neoliberal revolution in development economics observed in the late 1970s and early 1980s had been conceived much earlier; perhaps as early as the late 1950s. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 159

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s existing historiography of austerity/neoliberalism — the claim that structural adjustment’s intellectual tools predate the crisis by twenty years parallels work on the epistemic community behind the Washington Consensus. — connects to: Early neoliberal development economics reproduced colonial division of labor while anticipating export-oriented trade strategies — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1282; Neoliberal development thought began decades before its late-1970s influence. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1264; Neoliberal development economics emerged parallel to, not after, mainstream development theory — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1269 (+5 more)
• SEED: An essay angle: ‘the 1950s origins of export-oriented development’ — how a minority heterodox position within the MPS became the Washington Consensus orthodoxy decades later, and the role Peter Bauer played as the intellectual founder.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: did continued-colonialism sympathies among MPS members shape the later development paradigm’s indifference to inequality between and within countries? What was Bauer’s specific evidence for an entrepreneurial class in the developing world?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 159

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal development thought began decades before its late-1970s influence. #corroborates (0.95) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1264
• Early neoliberal development economics reproduced colonial division of labor while anticipating export-oriented trade strategies #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1282
• Neoliberal development economics emerged parallel to, not after, mainstream development theory #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1269
• Neoliberalism suppressed its own origins as a new doctrine by the late 1950s #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2136
• Chile abolished import substitution and embraced export-led liberalization in the mid-1970s #exemplifies (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1578
• The 1970s marked the transition from postwar social-democratic settlement to the neoliberal global conjuncture. #complicates (0.70) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 1198