Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

In Chapter 2 of 'The road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making of the Neoliberal Thought Collective', edited by Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe, Keith Tribe clarifies the ways in which Friedrich von Hayek’s revisionist history of British liberalism was accomplished.

Tribe claims that Hayek misleadingly presented the increasing weight of government in the British economy as a result of the intrusion of Germanic ideas (Hegel, Marx, List, etc.) rather than as a result of industrialization & imperialism.

Whereas political freedom traditionally was regarded as a prerequisite of economic freedom in the British liberal tradition, economic freedom was now advocated as quintessential to preserve a new kind of political freedom of (limited) individual choice.

In the run up to the unexpected historic 1945
@UKLabour landslide, Winston Churchill attacked Clement Attlee's Labour, claiming that a Labour government would have to rely on a 'Gestapo to carry out its socialist policies'.

Attlee responded in a broadcast on 5th June 1945.

In the same broadcast, Attlee denounced the Tories for using some of their paper ration for the election on Hayek's book The Road to Serfdom, which challenged the view that fascism was a capitalist reaction against socialism, & which influenced Thatcherism & right-libertarianism.

The Austrian input strengthened the British tradition
of principled market advocacy led by Robbins and Arnold Plant, which can be regarded as an early instance of the evolution of modern economics into a closed, self-referential system of thought.

But although British neoliberals did indeed refuse to engage serious questions with regard to equilibrium theory addressed by Keynesian economics, they also started to develop a new literature on the disruptive impact of political and trade-union intervention.

This emerging narrative ran counter to the trend toward nationalization, stabilization, and planning. Attention was directed to the detrimental impact of the “rent-seeking behaviour” exhibited by trade-unionized white workers in South Africa or patent owners, for example.

Although British neoliberals convinced more people in terms of advocating principles than substantiating their claims, & remained marginal in the academic system for much of the post–WWII period, the revival of neoliberal economics during the Thatcher era can be explained.

Both the production of textbooks and the establishment of think tanks like the Institute of Economic Affairs were crucial to maintaining and rebuilding neoliberal influence in the longer term.

Whereas postwar German neoliberalism emphasized a strong state, U.S. neoliberals worked hard to narrowly define the areas in which a strong neoliberal state could ascertain its pro-capitalist power and roll back the New Deal advance of social liberals and trade unionists.

Chicago became the key staging ground for forging a lasting alliance between neoliberal intellectuals and the corporate opposition to the New Deal. Central roles were played by Henry Simons and Friedrich von Hayek in founding the Chicago bastion of neoliberalism.

Simons & Hayek established the Free Market Project in Chicago, & a specific Chicago version of young & radical neoliberalism emerged during the 1950s, which differed both from the liberalism of the older generation & from the Austrian economics & philosophy Hayek promoted.

Early Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) members experienced difficulty in specifying precisely what held them together: this was a dilemma that would beset any group whose task lay more in prospective construction than in retrospective appreciation.

Nonetheless, members felt driven to draft a common creed, although Hayek himself warned, “I personally do not intend that any public manifesto should be issued.”

A relatively nonspecific & anodyne set of neoliberal ten commandments proved too contentious to gain assent.

The oxymoronic Committee of Individualists produced the “Statement of Aims”. All those gathered on April 8, 1947, except Nobel laureate Maurice Allais, fully accepted this rather less informative manifesto, which to this day remains the only “official” statement of the MPS.

You cannot simply look to any formal, sanctioned early publication of the MPS for a convenient definition of #neoliberalism, because it doesn't exist! What we do have, which helps understand the contemporary free-market fundamentalist mindset, is the MPS "Statement of aims":

"The central values of civilization are in danger.... The group holds that these developments have been fostered by the growth of a view of history which denies all absolute moral standards & by the growth of theories which question the desirability of the rule of law."

"It holds further that they have been fostered by a decline of belief in private property & the competitive market; for without the diffused power & initiative associated with these institutions it is difficult to imagine a society in which freedom may be effectively preserved."

"Believing that what is essentially an ideological movement must be met by intellectual argument & the reassertion of valid ideas, the group, having made a preliminary exploration of the ground, is of the opinion that further study is desirable in regard to the following:"

1. The analysis and explanation of the nature of the present crisis so as to bring home to others its essential moral and economic origins.

2. The redefinition of the functions of the state so as to distinguish more clearly between the totalitarian and the liberal order.

3. Methods of re-establishing the rule of law and of assuring its development in such a manner that individuals and groups not in a position to encroach upon the freedom of others and private rights are not allowed to become a basis of predatory power.

4. The possibility of establishing minimum standards by means not inimical to initiative and the functioning of the market.

5. Methods of combating the misuse of history for the furtherance of creeds hostile to liberty.

6. The problem of the creation of an international order conducive to the safeguarding of peace and liberty and permitting the establishment of harmonious international economic relations.

The only immutable truths to which they were eager to commit to were those of a more general philosophical & normative kind: the fundamental neoliberal values & principled beliefs we can discern in the list of six major tasks that have guided the neoliberal thought collective.

These tasks include economic freedom & individualism, the affirmation of moral standards, & possibly surprising for many critiques: social minimum standards (acknowledging the limits of private charity).

Among the 'principled beliefs' were those in 'positive state functions', a system of law & order, & international trade.

Notably absent were the range of human & political rights traditionally embraced by liberals (including the right to form coalitions & freedom of the press).

The fundamental principles outlined by the MPS are basically the same as those embraced by the global network of neoliberal/libertarian think tanks today, namely:
-A system of law & order
-International (free) trade
-(Unspecified) moral standards
-Economic freedom & individualism