Menu Expand

Coining Neoliberalism: Interwar Germany and the Neglected Origins of a Pejorative Moniker

Cite JOURNAL ARTICLE

Style

Magness, P. Coining Neoliberalism: Interwar Germany and the Neglected Origins of a Pejorative Moniker. Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch, 141(3), 189-214. https://doi.org/10.3790/schm.141.3.189
Magness, Phillip W. "Coining Neoliberalism: Interwar Germany and the Neglected Origins of a Pejorative Moniker" Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch 141.3, 2021, 189-214. https://doi.org/10.3790/schm.141.3.189
Magness, Phillip W. (2021): Coining Neoliberalism: Interwar Germany and the Neglected Origins of a Pejorative Moniker, in: Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch, vol. 141, iss. 3, 189-214, [online] https://doi.org/10.3790/schm.141.3.189

Format

Coining Neoliberalism: Interwar Germany and the Neglected Origins of a Pejorative Moniker

Magness, Phillip W.

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

  1. 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

  1. Adler, M. 1922. Die Staatsauffassung des Marxismus. Vienna: Wiener Volksbuchhandlung.  Google Scholar
  2. 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
  3. Baudin, L. 1947. “El Conflicto Contemporáneo de las Doctrinas Económicas.” Derecho PUCP 7: 9 – 16.  Google Scholar
  4. 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
  5. Biebricher, T. 2019. The Political Theory of Neoliberalism. Stanford: Stanford University Press.  Google Scholar
  6. 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
  7. Bonefeld, W. 2014. Critical Theory and the Critique of Political Economy: On Subversion and Negative Reason. London: Bloomsbury.  Google Scholar
  8. Brennan, J. and P. Magness. 2019. Cracks in the Ivory Tower: The Moral Mess of Higher Education. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  Google Scholar
  9. Brown, W. 2019. In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West. New York: Columbia University Press.  Google Scholar
  10. Burgin, A. 2012. The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets Since the Depression. Boston: Harvard University Press.  Google Scholar
  11. Cahill, D., M. Cooper, M. Konings, and D. Primrose, eds. 2018. The SAGE Handbook of Neoliberalism. Los Angeles: Sage Publishing.  Google Scholar
  12. 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
  13. Cowen, N. 2021. Neoliberal Social Justice. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.  Google Scholar
  14. Dekker, E. 2019. “Is There an Agenda of Neoliberal Emancipation?” Journal of Contextual Economics–Schmollers Jahrbuch 139 (2 – 4): 213 – 23.  Google Scholar
  15. 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
  16. Foucault, M. 2008. The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the College de France. Translated by Graham Burchell. London: Palgrave Macmillan.  Google Scholar
  17. Friedman, M. 1951. “Neoliberalism and Its Prospects.” Farmand, February 17: 89 – 93.  Google Scholar
  18. Friedman, M. 2002. “Friedman and Freedom.” Interview by Peter Jaworski. Queen’s Journal 37 (129): 1 – 2.  Google Scholar
  19. Friedrich, C. J. 1955. “The Political Thought of Neo-Liberalism.” American Political Science Review 49 (2): 509 – 25.  Google Scholar
  20. Gide, C. 1898. “Has Co-Operation Introduced a New Principle into Economics?” Economic Journal 8 (32): 490 – 511.  Google Scholar
  21. 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
  22. Giroux, H. A. 2015. University in Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex. London: Routledge.  Google Scholar
  23. 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
  24. Haag, J. 1966. Othmar Spann and the Ideology of the Austrian Corporate State. Master’s Thesis. Rice University.  Google Scholar
  25. Haag, J. 1969. Othmar Spann and the Politics of ‘Totality. PhD Diss., Rice University.  Google Scholar
  26. Haag, J. 1976. “Othmar Spann and the Quest for a ‘True State’.” Austrian History Yearbook 12 (1): 227 – 50.  Google Scholar
  27. Hartwich, O. M. 2012. Neoliberalism: The Genesis of a Political Swearword. CIS Occasional Paper No. 114, Centre for Independent Studies.  Google Scholar
  28. Hensel, A. 1931. “Die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Rechtsstaates.” Archiv für Rechts- und Wirtschaftsphilosophie 24 (3): 379 – 82.  Google Scholar
  29. Hilferding, R. 1919. Böhm-Bawerk’s Criticism of Marx. Translated by E. and C. Paul. Glasgow: Socialist Labour Press.  Google Scholar
  30. 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
  31. Klausinger, H. 2014. “Academic Anti-Semitism and the Austrian School: Vienna, 1918 – 1945.” Atlantic Economic Journal 42 (2): 191 – 204.  Google Scholar
  32. 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
  33. Kolev, S. 2017. Neoliberale Staatsverständnisse im Vergleich. Berlin: De Gruyter.  Google Scholar
  34. 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
  35. 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
  36. Lippmann, W. 1937. An Inquiry into the Principles of the Good Society. Boston: Little Brown.  Google Scholar
  37. Mayer, H. 1952. “Selbstdarstellung.” In Österreichische Rechts- und Staatswissenschaften der Gegenwart in Selbstdarstellungen, edited by N. Grass, 233 – 72. Innsbruck: Wagner.  Google Scholar
  38. Merriam, C. E. 1938. “Review of the Good Society by Walter Lippmann.” Political Science Quarterly 53 (1): 129 – 34.  Google Scholar
  39. Meusel, A. 1924. “Zur Bürgerlichen Sozialkritik der Gegenwart: Der Neu-Liberalismus (Ludwig Mises).” Die Gesellschaft 1: 372 – 83.  Google Scholar
  40. Meusel, A. 1928. “Das Problem der äußeren Handelspolitik bei Friedrich List und Karl Marx.” Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv 27 (1): 77 – 103.  Google Scholar
  41. 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
  42. Mises, L. v. (1919) 1983. Nation, State, and Economy: Contributions to the Politics and History of Our Time. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.  Google Scholar
  43. Mises, L. v. 1927. Liberalismus. Jena: Gustav Fischer.  Google Scholar
  44. Mises, L. v. (1933) 2002. Epistemological Problems of Economics. Translated by George Reisman. Auburn: Ludwig von Mises Institute.  Google Scholar
  45. Mises, L. v. 1944. Omnipotent Government. New Haven: Yale University Press.  Google Scholar
  46. Mises, L. v. 1949. Human Action. New Haven: Yale University Press.  Google Scholar
  47. Mises, L. v. 1962. The Free and Prosperous Commonwealth: An Exposition of the Ideas of Classical Liberalism. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand.  Google Scholar
  48. Moley, R. 1950a. “Liberalism a Stolen Word.” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, January 13.  Google Scholar
  49. Moley, R. 1950b. “Liberalism Goes Too Far.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, September 28.  Google Scholar
  50. Reinhoudt, J. and S. Audier, eds. 2018. The Walter Lippmann Colloquium: The Birth of Neo-Liberalism. London: Palgrave Macmillan.  Google Scholar
  51. Rodrik, D. 2017. “Rescuing Economics from Neoliberalism.” Boston Review, November 6, 2017. http://bostonreview.net/class-inequality/dani-rodrik-rescuing-economics-neoliberalism.  Google Scholar
  52. Rosenberg, A. 1930. Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts. Munich: Hoheneichen.  Google Scholar
  53. Rüstow, A. 1949. “Zwischen Kapitalismus und Kommunismus.” ORDO–Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 2: 100 – 69.  Google Scholar
  54. Rüstow, A. and F. P. Maier-Rigaud. 1950. Das Versagen des Wirtschaftsliberalismus. Munich: Helmut Küpper.  Google Scholar
  55. 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
  56. 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
  57. Slobodian, Q. 2018. Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.  Google Scholar
  58. 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
  59. Spann, O. 1910. Die Haupttheorien der Volkswirtschaftslehre. Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer.  Google Scholar
  60. Spann, O. (1926) 1931. Types of Economic Theory. London: George Allen and Unwin.  Google Scholar
  61. Spann, O. 1931. “Fluch und Segen der Wirtschaft im Urteile der verschiedenen Lehrbegriffe.” Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik 79 (4): 656 – 72.  Google Scholar
  62. Springer, S. 2016. “Fuck Neoliberalism.” ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 15 (2): 285 – 92.  Google Scholar
  63. Stark, C. 2010. “The Neoliberal Ideology and the Challenges for Social Work Ethics and Practice.” Revista de Asistenta Sociala 1: 9 – 19.  Google Scholar
  64. 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
  65. Stolper, G. 1942. This Age of Fable. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock.  Google Scholar
  66. 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
  67. Turner, R. S. 2007. “The ‘Rebirth of Liberalism’: The Origins of Neo-Liberal Ideology.” Journal of Political Ideologies 12 (1): 67 – 83.  Google Scholar
  68. Valk, W. L. 1928. The Principles of Wages. London: P. S. King.  Google Scholar
  69. Valk, W. L. 1934. “Review of ‘Führer durch die Krisenpolitik’ by Fritz Machlup.” Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie 5 (4): 552 – 5.  Google Scholar
  70. Wasserman, J. 2014. Black Vienna: The Radical Right in the Red City, 1918 – 1938. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.  Google Scholar
  71. Winter, E. K. 1935. “Arbeiterschaft und Staat.” Wiener Politische Blätter, Vols. 4 – 5: 60 – 190.  Google Scholar
  72. 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.