Voorstel tot een historische kritiek van het neoliberalisme

Lars Cornelissen

Lars Cornelissen doet doctoraal onderzoek aan de University of Brighton (Verenigd Koninkrijk). Hij is gespecialiseerd in de geschiedenis van het neoliberalisme en schrijft zijn dissertatie over het antidemocratische aspect van neoliberale politieke economie.

Proposal for a historical critique of neoliberalism

In this article I argue that the commonplace interpretation of neoliberalism in the Netherlands is mistaken. According to this interpretation the term ‘neoliberalism’ refers to a series of policies, including privatisation and deregulation, that were implemented in the Netherlands in the 1980’s in imitation of Thatcher and Reagan. I argue that it is not this series of policies but the justification underpinning them that is of a neoliberal nature. To support this claim I offer a brief genealogical history of neoliberal thought, which developed in the interwar period, by explicitly distinguishing itself from both 19th-century classical liberalism and contemporary modern liberalism. On the basis of this historical account I assert that neoliberalism adopts the foundational principles of classical and modern liberalism, but that it prescribes different formal principles of rational government. I conclude that this diction makes it possible to write a critical history of neoliberalism.