Neoliberalismus: Über ein intellektuelles Missverständnis

The term neoliberalism is a faithful companion of current public debates. It often serves as a proxy for what is allegedly wrong with society. The term is used to criticize a perceived commodification of spheres of human existence that used to be shielded from a purely economic logic. Recently, the term neoliberalism has become the object of historical research. Its roots have been traced back as far as 1947 or 1918. I argue in this paper that historians have taken a methodologically questionable approach, by departing from the blurry concept of neoliberalism as it is perceived today and trying to trace it back in time as far as possible. Such an approach leads to severe contradictions as economists labelled ex-post as neoliberals were often opposed to neoliberalism as it is currently defined. It is methodologically more sound and analytically more rewarding to start the conception of the term with the economists who self-identified as neoliberals. This approach leads to a more coherent concept of neoliberalism that is better suited for further research and provides a clearer understanding of the history of economic thought in the interwar period and the first postwar years.