Coining Neoliberalism: Interwar Germany and the Neglected Origins of a Pejorative Moniker
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Cite JOURNAL ARTICLE
Style
Format
Coining Neoliberalism: Interwar Germany and the Neglected Origins of a Pejorative Moniker
Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch, Vol. 141 (2021), Iss. 3 : pp. 189–214
1 Citations (CrossRef)
Additional Information
Article Details
Author Details
Phillip W. Magness, Senior Research Fellow, American Institute for Economic Research, Great Barrington, MA.
Cited By
-
WHEN LIBERTY PRESUPPOSES ORDER: F. A. HAYEK’S CONTEXTUAL ORDOLIBERALISM
Kolev, Stefan
Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Vol. 46 (2024), Iss. 2 P.288
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1053837223000214 [Citations: 2]
References
-
Adler, M. 1922. Die Staatsauffassung des Marxismus. Vienna: Wiener Volksbuchhandlung.
Google Scholar -
Baradaran, M. 2020. “The Neoliberal Looting of America.” New York Times, July 2, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/opinion/private-equity-inequality.html.
Google Scholar -
Baudin, L. 1947. “El Conflicto Contemporáneo de las Doctrinas Económicas.” Derecho PUCP 7: 9 – 16.
Google Scholar -
Becker, G. S., F. Ewald, and B. E. Harcourt. 2012. ‘Becker on Ewald on Foucault on Becker’: American Neoliberalism and Michel Foucault’s 1979 ‘Birth of Biopolitics’ Lectures. University of Chicago Institute for Law & Economics Olin Research Paper No. 614.
Google Scholar -
Biebricher, T. 2019. The Political Theory of Neoliberalism. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Google Scholar -
Boas, T. C. and J. Gans-Morse. 2009. “Neoliberalism: From New Liberal Philosophy to Anti-Liberal Slogan.” Studies in Comparative International Development 44 (2): 137 – 61.
Google Scholar -
Bonefeld, W. 2014. Critical Theory and the Critique of Political Economy: On Subversion and Negative Reason. London: Bloomsbury.
Google Scholar -
Brennan, J. and P. Magness. 2019. Cracks in the Ivory Tower: The Moral Mess of Higher Education. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar -
Brown, W. 2019. In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West. New York: Columbia University Press.
Google Scholar -
Burgin, A. 2012. The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets Since the Depression. Boston: Harvard University Press.
Google Scholar -
Cahill, D., M. Cooper, M. Konings, and D. Primrose, eds. 2018. The SAGE Handbook of Neoliberalism. Los Angeles: Sage Publishing.
Google Scholar -
Chait, J. 2017. “How ‘Neoliberalism’ Became the Left’s Favorite Insult of Liberals.” New York Magazine, July 16, 2017. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/how-neoliberalism-became-the-lefts-favorite-insult.html.
Google Scholar -
Cowen, N. 2021. Neoliberal Social Justice. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Google Scholar -
Dekker, E. 2019. “Is There an Agenda of Neoliberal Emancipation?” Journal of Contextual Economics–Schmollers Jahrbuch 139 (2 – 4): 213 – 23.
Google Scholar -
Ebeling, R. M. 2016. “The Continuing Relevance of Mises’s Human Action.” Mises Daily Wire, September 8, 2016. https://mises.org/wire/continuing-relevance-misess-human-action.
Google Scholar -
Foucault, M. 2008. The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the College de France. Translated by Graham Burchell. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Google Scholar -
Friedman, M. 1951. “Neoliberalism and Its Prospects.” Farmand, February 17: 89 – 93.
Google Scholar -
Friedman, M. 2002. “Friedman and Freedom.” Interview by Peter Jaworski. Queen’s Journal 37 (129): 1 – 2.
Google Scholar -
Friedrich, C. J. 1955. “The Political Thought of Neo-Liberalism.” American Political Science Review 49 (2): 509 – 25.
Google Scholar -
Gide, C. 1898. “Has Co-Operation Introduced a New Principle into Economics?” Economic Journal 8 (32): 490 – 511.
Google Scholar -
Giroux, H. A. 2002. “Neoliberalism, Corporate Culture, and the Promise of Higher Education: The University as a Democratic Public Sphere.” Harvard Educational Review 72 (4): 425 – 64.
Google Scholar -
Giroux, H. A. 2015. University in Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar -
Goldschmidt, N. and H. Rauchenschwandtner. 2018. “The Philosophy of Social Market Economy: Michel Foucault’s Analysis of Ordoliberalism.” Journal of Contextual Economics–Schmollers Jahrbuch 138 (2): 157 – 84.
Google Scholar -
Haag, J. 1966. Othmar Spann and the Ideology of the Austrian Corporate State. Master’s Thesis. Rice University.
Google Scholar -
Haag, J. 1969. Othmar Spann and the Politics of ‘Totality. PhD Diss., Rice University.
Google Scholar -
Haag, J. 1976. “Othmar Spann and the Quest for a ‘True State’.” Austrian History Yearbook 12 (1): 227 – 50.
Google Scholar -
Hartwich, O. M. 2012. Neoliberalism: The Genesis of a Political Swearword. CIS Occasional Paper No. 114, Centre for Independent Studies.
Google Scholar -
Hensel, A. 1931. “Die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Rechtsstaates.” Archiv für Rechts- und Wirtschaftsphilosophie 24 (3): 379 – 82.
Google Scholar -
Hilferding, R. 1919. Böhm-Bawerk’s Criticism of Marx. Translated by E. and C. Paul. Glasgow: Socialist Labour Press.
Google Scholar -
Horn, K. 2018. “Der Neoliberalismus wird achtzig.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, August 24, 2018. Accessed September 26, 2022. https://www.faz.net/aktuell/finanzen/finanzmarkt/neoliberalismus-wird-achtzig-geboren-aus-dem-geist-der-krise-15733799.html.
Google Scholar -
Klausinger, H. 2014. “Academic Anti-Semitism and the Austrian School: Vienna, 1918 – 1945.” Atlantic Economic Journal 42 (2): 191 – 204.
Google Scholar -
Knight, F. H. (1943) 1999. “The Meaning of Freedom and the Ideal of Freedom: Conditions for Its Realization.” In Selected Essays by Frank H. Knight, Volume 2: Laissez Faire: Pro and Con, edited by R. Emmett, 165 – 208. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar -
Kolev, S. 2017. Neoliberale Staatsverständnisse im Vergleich. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Google Scholar -
Kolev, S. 2018. “Paleo- and Neoliberals: Ludwig von Mises and the ‘Ordo-interventionists.’” In Wilhelm Röpke (1899 – 1966): A Liberal Political Economist and Conservative Social Philosopher, edited by P. Commun and S. Kolev, 65 – 90. Cham: Springer.
Google Scholar -
Kolev, S. 2020. “Besieged by the Left and the Right: The Order of Liberal Globalism.” Review of Austrian Economics 33 (4): 521 – 33.
Google Scholar -
Lippmann, W. 1937. An Inquiry into the Principles of the Good Society. Boston: Little Brown.
Google Scholar -
Mayer, H. 1952. “Selbstdarstellung.” In Österreichische Rechts- und Staatswissenschaften der Gegenwart in Selbstdarstellungen, edited by N. Grass, 233 – 72. Innsbruck: Wagner.
Google Scholar -
Merriam, C. E. 1938. “Review of the Good Society by Walter Lippmann.” Political Science Quarterly 53 (1): 129 – 34.
Google Scholar -
Meusel, A. 1924. “Zur Bürgerlichen Sozialkritik der Gegenwart: Der Neu-Liberalismus (Ludwig Mises).” Die Gesellschaft 1: 372 – 83.
Google Scholar -
Meusel, A. 1928. “Das Problem der äußeren Handelspolitik bei Friedrich List und Karl Marx.” Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv 27 (1): 77 – 103.
Google Scholar -
Mirowski, P. and D. Plehwe, eds. 2015. The Road from Mont Pelerin: The Making of the Neoliberal Thought Collective. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Google Scholar -
Mises, L. v. (1919) 1983. Nation, State, and Economy: Contributions to the Politics and History of Our Time. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.
Google Scholar -
Mises, L. v. 1927. Liberalismus. Jena: Gustav Fischer.
Google Scholar -
Mises, L. v. (1933) 2002. Epistemological Problems of Economics. Translated by George Reisman. Auburn: Ludwig von Mises Institute.
Google Scholar -
Mises, L. v. 1944. Omnipotent Government. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Google Scholar -
Mises, L. v. 1949. Human Action. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Google Scholar -
Mises, L. v. 1962. The Free and Prosperous Commonwealth: An Exposition of the Ideas of Classical Liberalism. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand.
Google Scholar -
Moley, R. 1950a. “Liberalism a Stolen Word.” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, January 13.
Google Scholar -
Moley, R. 1950b. “Liberalism Goes Too Far.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, September 28.
Google Scholar -
Reinhoudt, J. and S. Audier, eds. 2018. The Walter Lippmann Colloquium: The Birth of Neo-Liberalism. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Google Scholar -
Rodrik, D. 2017. “Rescuing Economics from Neoliberalism.” Boston Review, November 6, 2017. http://bostonreview.net/class-inequality/dani-rodrik-rescuing-economics-neoliberalism.
Google Scholar -
Rosenberg, A. 1930. Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts. Munich: Hoheneichen.
Google Scholar -
Rüstow, A. 1949. “Zwischen Kapitalismus und Kommunismus.” ORDO–Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 2: 100 – 69.
Google Scholar -
Rüstow, A. and F. P. Maier-Rigaud. 1950. Das Versagen des Wirtschaftsliberalismus. Munich: Helmut Küpper.
Google Scholar -
Schulak, E. M. and H. Unterköfler. 2011. The Austrian School of Economics: A History of Its Ideas, Ambassadors, and Institutions. Auburn: Ludwig von Mises Institute.
Google Scholar -
Seal, A. 2018. “How the University Became Neoliberal.” Chronicle of Higher Education. June 8, 2018. https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-the-university-became-neoliberal/.
Google Scholar -
Slobodian, Q. 2018. Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Google Scholar -
Slobodian, Q. 2019. “Perfect Capitalism, Imperfect Humans: Race, Migration and the Limits of Ludwig von Mises’s Globalism.” Contemporary European History 28 (2): 143 – 55.
Google Scholar -
Spann, O. 1910. Die Haupttheorien der Volkswirtschaftslehre. Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer.
Google Scholar -
Spann, O. (1926) 1931. Types of Economic Theory. London: George Allen and Unwin.
Google Scholar -
Spann, O. 1931. “Fluch und Segen der Wirtschaft im Urteile der verschiedenen Lehrbegriffe.” Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik 79 (4): 656 – 72.
Google Scholar -
Springer, S. 2016. “Fuck Neoliberalism.” ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 15 (2): 285 – 92.
Google Scholar -
Stark, C. 2010. “The Neoliberal Ideology and the Challenges for Social Work Ethics and Practice.” Revista de Asistenta Sociala 1: 9 – 19.
Google Scholar -
Steinweis, A. E. 1991. “Weimar Culture and the Rise of National Socialism: The Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur.” Central European History 24 (4): 402 – 23.
Google Scholar -
Stolper, G. 1942. This Age of Fable. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock.
Google Scholar -
Strothmann, D. 1963. “Der Ruin der Kultur.” Die Zeit, December 6, 1963. Accessed June 8, 2021. https://www.zeit.de/1963/49/der-ruin-der-kultur.
Google Scholar -
Turner, R. S. 2007. “The ‘Rebirth of Liberalism’: The Origins of Neo-Liberal Ideology.” Journal of Political Ideologies 12 (1): 67 – 83.
Google Scholar -
Valk, W. L. 1928. The Principles of Wages. London: P. S. King.
Google Scholar -
Valk, W. L. 1934. “Review of ‘Führer durch die Krisenpolitik’ by Fritz Machlup.” Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie 5 (4): 552 – 5.
Google Scholar -
Wasserman, J. 2014. Black Vienna: The Radical Right in the Red City, 1918 – 1938. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Google Scholar -
Winter, E. K. 1935. “Arbeiterschaft und Staat.” Wiener Politische Blätter, Vols. 4 – 5: 60 – 190.
Google Scholar -
Zamora, D. and M. C. Behrent, eds. 2016. Foucault and Neoliberalism. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Google Scholar
Abstract
Widespread use of the term “neoliberalism” is of surprisingly recent origin, dating to only the late 20th century. The “neoliberalism” literature has nonetheless settled on an origin story that depicts the term as a self-selected moniker from the 1938 Walter Lippmann Colloquium. This paper challenges the 1938 origin, positing an earlier adoption of the term by Marxist and fascist political writers in 1920s German-language texts. These writers used “neo/neu-liberalismus” as a derisive moniker for the “Marginal Utility School,” then anchored at the University of Vienna. Definitional commonalities link this earlier use to pejorative deployment of the term in the present.