Theorizing ideational continuity: The resilience of neo-liberal ideas in Europe

Abstract

…the ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than commonly understood. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas. John Maynard Keynes (1936, p. 383) When Keynes wrote these lines, he certainly had in mind the influence of the ideas of laissez-faire economic liberalism, which he held responsible for the great boom and bust of the 1920s that led to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Today, another form of economic liberalism, neo-liberalism, has supplanted Keynes's own ideas, which had gained dominance in the postwar era. Our task, in this theoretical essay, is to explain how and why the ideas of neo-liberal economists and political philosophers obtained and retained their power in European policy debates and political discourse during the past three or four decades. We define ‘neo-liberalism’, at its essence, as involving a commitment to certain core principles focused on market competition and a limited state. Our purpose is to explain the resilience of these core neo-liberal ideas, meaning their ability to endure, recur, or adapt over time; to predominate against rivals; and to survive despite their own many failures. We offer five lines of analysis as potential explanations for such resilience: first, the generality, flexibility, and mutability of neo-liberal ideas themselves; second, the gap between neo-liberal rhetoric and a reality in which they are not implemented; third, their advantages in policy debates and political discourse compared with alternatives; fourth, the power of interested actors who strategically adopt and promote neo-liberal ideas; and, fifth, the force of the institutions in which neo-liberal ideas are embedded.

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