Abstract
The article offers a critique of the prevailing understanding of the relationship between neoliberalism and classic nineteenth-century liberalism in contemporary international political economy (IPE) and offers a redefinition inspired by Polanyi and Gramsci. Within critical IPE studies, a consensus has emerged that neoliberalism cannot be reduced to a simple attempt to roll back the economy and let loose free-market forces. However, this insight relies on contrasting neoliberalism with a classic liberalism, that is, a simple attempt to implement just this naïve laissez-faire ideology. In contrast, this article argues that nineteenth-century liberalism is also characterised by an active use of state and legislative power. Through a historical study of two cases from nineteenth-century Britain, Poor Law reform and the Gold Standard, the paper will argue that state action played a central role even during the heyday of laissez-faire liberalism. With a starting point in Polanyi’s dictum that ‘laissez-faire was planned’, this reinvestigation will point towards a need to develop a more nuanced understanding of the distinctions between economic theory, ideology, and practical policy, as well as pointing towards a general reinterpretation of the role of the state in liberal economic ideology.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | New Political Economy |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Pages (from-to) | 473-486 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| ISSN | 1356-3467 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 4 Jul 2019 |
Keywords
- Neoliberalism
- classical liberalism
- critical political economy
- economic governance
- history of economic thought
- state theory