Page 35 - Šolsko polje, XXIX, 2018, no. 1-2: The Language of Neoliberal Education, ed. Mitja Sardoč
P. 35
Neoliberalism and Laissez-faire:
The Retreat from Naturalism1
Mark Olssen
The Problem of Laissez-faire in Neoliberal Thought
Foucault’s (2008) analysis of the ordo liberals in Germany focused on
the discrepancy between their advocacy of laissez-faire and the po-
larity between their views on the role of government. On the one
hand, the German ordo liberals distrusted large concentrations of power
and opposed action to ‘interfere’ in markets, through wages and price fix-
ing, or administrative or bureaucratic involvement, but on the other hand,
they favoured and supported the actions of government to reinforce and
strengthen the institutional infrastructures, to arrange and enable the
‘conditions’ necessary for the market to operate. This was supported, for
instance, by ordo liberals such as Walter Eücken, who took the view that
the economy required an ‘economic constitution,’ which must be created
and protected by the state. The possible conflict with free market princi-
ples is evident in the following statement:
A solution of this task of which much depends (not only men’s economic
existence), requires the elaboration of a practicable economic constitu-
tion which satisfies certain basic principles. The problem will not solve it-
self simply by our letting economic systems grow up spontaneously. The
history of the last century has shown this plainly enough. The economic
system has to be consciously shaped. (Eücken, 1992: p. 314)
1 Some paragraphs in this paper draw from my previous writings on neoliberalism, specifi-
cally Olssen (2010, 2016, 2018) and Olssen, Codd, O’Neill (2004). The publishers of those
articles and books are thanked for any replication in this paper.
33
The Retreat from Naturalism1
Mark Olssen
The Problem of Laissez-faire in Neoliberal Thought
Foucault’s (2008) analysis of the ordo liberals in Germany focused on
the discrepancy between their advocacy of laissez-faire and the po-
larity between their views on the role of government. On the one
hand, the German ordo liberals distrusted large concentrations of power
and opposed action to ‘interfere’ in markets, through wages and price fix-
ing, or administrative or bureaucratic involvement, but on the other hand,
they favoured and supported the actions of government to reinforce and
strengthen the institutional infrastructures, to arrange and enable the
‘conditions’ necessary for the market to operate. This was supported, for
instance, by ordo liberals such as Walter Eücken, who took the view that
the economy required an ‘economic constitution,’ which must be created
and protected by the state. The possible conflict with free market princi-
ples is evident in the following statement:
A solution of this task of which much depends (not only men’s economic
existence), requires the elaboration of a practicable economic constitu-
tion which satisfies certain basic principles. The problem will not solve it-
self simply by our letting economic systems grow up spontaneously. The
history of the last century has shown this plainly enough. The economic
system has to be consciously shaped. (Eücken, 1992: p. 314)
1 Some paragraphs in this paper draw from my previous writings on neoliberalism, specifi-
cally Olssen (2010, 2016, 2018) and Olssen, Codd, O’Neill (2004). The publishers of those
articles and books are thanked for any replication in this paper.
33
