The Neoliberal and the Powerlessness of Ideas

William Coleman ()

ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics from Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics

Abstract: Keynes famously claimed 'soon or late, it is ideas, not vested interested which are dangerous for good or evil'. His neoliberal critics have frequently concurred with this contention, and have happily used the example of Keynes to illustrate it. But is 'the power of ideas' consistent with neoliberal doctrine? The paper argues that the most conclusive case for categorical 'market success' propositions will eliminate ideas as explanatory of economic failure , and imply such failures must be traced to exploitation of by special interests . However, the paper argues that neoliberalism is committed to 'government failure' not 'market success', and government failure does give room for ideas to have power, for good or ill.

Pages: 24 Pages
Date: 2012-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe and nep-pke
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cbe.anu.edu.au/researchpapers/econ/wp578.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:acb:cbeeco:2012-578

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics from Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().