Think Tank networks of German neoliberalism. Power structures in economics and economic policies in post-war Germany

Stephan Puehringer
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Stephan Pühringer

No 53, ICAE Working Papers from Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy

Abstract: Even after the financial crisis, economists still exert influence on politics and society in general on several levels and thus can be still interpreted as a discipline of power. Particularly in Germany there is a long tradition of institutionalized economic policy advice, which offers economists a channel of direct and indirect impact on politics. During the European crisis policies many scholar stressed a "comeback", "revival" or "return" of ordoliberalism, the German variety of neoliberalism. In this paper I show how economists connected in the "German neoliberal thought collective" since the end of WW II have built up a strong institutional powerstructure, which had a continuous impact on German economic politics over many decades. It can be shown that in several turning points of German economic history, German neoliberalism and its core politico-economic concept of "Social market economy" served as guiding principle of economic policy. Furthermore I will show that up to now there is an uneven power balance among economists with high political and societal influence, i.e. economists connected in Keynesian or union-linked networks are in a minority position compared to the dense network of economists in the "German neoliberale thought collective". Hence, what was observed during the European crisis policies as a "comeback of ordoliberalism" should rather be interpreted as the consequence of a persistant influence of German neoliberal networks on German economic politics over many decades.

Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2016-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-hme, nep-hpe and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Think tank networks of German neoliberalism power structures in economics and economic policies in post-war Germany (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ico:wpaper:53

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