German Neoliberalism Research Articles

Governmentality's (missing) international dimension and the promiscuity of German neoliberalism

An important insight from the recent publication of Foucault's governmentality lectures for International Relations (IR) is that international manifestations of governmentalities such as police and liberalism, rather than constituting mere domestic analogies, have inherently international dimensions. Police and liberalism are both constituted by and constitutive of the international contexts in which they emerge: historically, the European balance of power and a ‘globalisation’ of markets, respectively. However, Foucault's account of German and American neoliberalism in the twentieth century omits references to the international context. This article first reconstructs the ‘domestic-international nexus’ in Foucault's account of police and liberalism, and then recovers aspects of the missing international dimension of his analysis of German neoliberalism with recourse to Wilhelm Ropke's writing on IR. The upshot of this recovery effort is threefold. First, the international remains pivotal to (mid-) twentieth-century neoliberal governmentality. Second, (German) neoliberalism's association with multiple ‘international’ governmentalities, including liberal and non-liberal ones, exposes neoliberalism as a ‘promiscuous’ mode of governance. Third, German neoliberalism's promiscuity is underwritten by (though not reducible to) a conservative ethos of moderation. More broadly, this article contributes to efforts to theorise the relationship between domestic and international politics, and to understand neoliberalism as a ‘variegated’ phenomenon.

Foucault’s ‘German Moment’: Genealogy of a Disjuncture

Foucault’s lectures from early 1979 on the German Ordo-liberalen are typically taken to comprise his most comprehensive account of why Germany is important for understanding neo-liberal governmentality more broadly. This paper argues, to the contrary, that the 1979 lectures actually obscure a potentially more complete account of German, neo-liberal governmentality Foucault had begun to sketch in 1977. To support this reading and to offer an explanation of why Foucault would have decided to alter his presentation of West German neo-liberalism, the paper undertakes a genealogy of Foucault’s involvement with West German political issues in 1977 and 1978. The core claims that structure the argument are as follows: (1) Key aspects of the “security state” that Foucault began to work out in 1977, must have been at least partly modeled on West German “militant” or “battle-ready” democracy; (2) Yet, in his 1979 lectures, there is no longer any trace of these repressive, extralegal dimensions; (3) This shift was motivated to a significant extent by his 1977 disagreement with Deleuze, Guattari, and others over whether the West German state of the late 1970s could be considered “fascist.” This concern to contest the accusation of fascism is carried forward in his 1979 lectures in a critique of “state phobia.”

The Doctrine of German Neo-Liberalism in Terms of its Genesis and Practical Implementation

The phenomenon of German neo-liberalism as a peculiar political-economic doctrine which became popular after World War It is analysed in the context of the ideology of neo-liberalism. Attempts have been made to show historical and cultural conditions which favoured the implementation of the ideas developed by W. Eucken, theoretician of the German neo-liberalism, and the representatives of the Freiburg school. The aim of the paper is to identify the peculiarities that make this economic thought different from classical neo-liberalism and have stimulated the development of the economy in post-war West Germany.

WEST GERMAN IDEAS ON EMPLOYMENT POLICY DURING THE FIRST YEARS OF THE ‘ECONOMIC MIRACLE’

ABSTRACTEmployment policies were a concern throughout history but not always in the sense of Keynes. German neoliberals (who had anticipated Keynesian ideas around 1930) emphasised the need for productive employment in the period of growth after the war. According to the vision of a social market economy, jobs should not be only temporary, but offer lasting employment, in industries with good development prospects, and in conditions conductive to good work.

Constitutionalizing the Economy: German Neo-Liberalism, Competition Law and the "New" Europe

Despite its enormous importance in the evolution of competition law in Europe, ordoliberal thought — and German neo-liberal thought generally — has received little attention in the English-speaking world, and it remains all but unknown in the United States. Moreover, except in Germany, awareness of these ideas has been confined almost exclusively to economists, while lawyers and political scientists have seldom been exposed to them. Finally, there has been little modern study of the impact of these ideas on the development of European thought.In this article I address this critically important gap in our understanding of European thought and institutions. I seek to contribute to a fuller understanding of ordoliberal thought, particularly among non-German readers and among lawyers and policy analysts — to whom (together with economists) this body of thought has been addressed. In addition, I sketch the roles these ideas have played in the evolution of German and European legal thought and institutions, in general, and competition law, in particular.

German Neo-Liberals and the Social Market Economy

German Neo-Liberals and the Social Market Economy

Germany's social market economy: origins and evolution and German neo-liberals and the social market economy

Journal Article Germany's social market economy: origins and evolution and German neo-liberals and the social market economy Get access Germany's social market economy: origins and evolution. Edited by Alan Peacockand Hans Willgerodt. London: Macmillan for Trade Policy Research Centre. 1989. 292pp. Index. £45.00. ISBN 0 333 48563 7.German neo-liberals and the social market economy. Edited by Alan Peacockand Hans Willgerodt. London: Macmillan for Trade Policy Research Centre. 1989. 242pp. Index. £45.00. ISBN 0 333 48564 5. A. J. Nicholls A. J. Nicholls 1St Antony's College, Oxford Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 66, Issue 3, July 1990, Pages 605–606, https://doi.org/10.2307/2623131 Published: 01 July 1990

ORDNUNGSIDEE UND ORDNUNGSPOLITIK ‐KRITIK EINER WIRTSCHAFTSPOLITISCHEN KONZEPTION: Edgar Salin zum 10. Februar 1972

SUMMARYThe Economic Theory of German neoliberalism comprises a certain conglomerate of an absolutely free choice of selecting an economic system on the one hand and a definite determination of the economic policy that results of this choice on the other; this conglomerate prevented the theory of neoliberalism to become a valid theory of economic policy. The former German neoliberalism reduces the categories of aims and means to the choice of the economic system, an unhistorical approach, because such a choice never happened at all. But such an approach enabled the neoliberal authors to reduce any economic policy to only conservate the market system. Even the modern approach of separating qualitative and quantitative policies pursues the same intentions: although indefensible positions vanished under the impression of Keynesian theories, nevertheless the definition of a genuine qualitative policy implicates that the latter has the function of conservating the market system. This distinction of qualitative and quantitative policy has another meaning than in the system of Tinbergen. Since the criteria of separation are ambiguous, even the modern approaches of German neoliberal economic policies remain inadequate compared with the modern theory of economic policy a la Tinbergen.

Anti-Pluralist Liberalism: The German Neoliberals

Currently, there is a challenging discussion among political scientists regarding the merits and limitations of pluralism in American government and politics and the role of liberal ideas and attitudes that have been commonly associated with it.1 It is seldom noticed that many of the critical views raised in the literature have been anticipated by the arguments of the German neoliberals; aside from one very informative and perspicacious bibliographical article on the entire movement,2 German neoliberalism has received only meager attention in this country, and that almost exclusively from economists.3 Yet the German neoliberal movement has im-

German Neoliberalism

German Neoliberalism