Aug 2026· Contemporary European History· Vol 35· 0 citations· 8 references
Abstract
While the history of neoliberalism and Thatcherism in the United Kingdom has been the subject of much analysis, the history of ordoliberalism, a German variety of neoliberalism, in the same country is unexplored. Drawing on grey policy literature and archival material from inside party political discourses, this article examines engagements with the core ordoliberal concept of the social market economy in British political discourse and identifies not isolated incidents but a recurrent and sustained engagement from the 1970s to the 1990s. Across this periodisation, social markets, and with it ordoliberalism, appear in three different policy debates, in the Conservative Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Labour Party. This variety of neoliberalism, and its accompanying social and moral thought, features in the legitimation of neoliberalism and neoliberal policies.
This essay intervenes in contemporary debates around neoliberalism and its relationship to both authoritarianism and social democracy. It does so by reconstructing the debate on Thatcherism that took place between Stuart Hall and Bob Jessop in the 1980s. Both authors provide materialist analyses of Thatcherism that point to important continuities, at the level of both political economy and authoritarian political technique, between her hegemonic project and late-stage social democracy. I argue that this provides an antidote to the social democratic nostalgia that is the potential product of the ways that neoliberalism is frequently theorised in the contemporary literature. While both thinkers highlight these continuities, they are more obviousin Jessop’s institutional approach to hegemony than in Hall’s analysis of Thatcher’s ideology.
Daniel McLoughlin· Historical Materialism· 0 citations
This thesis provides a historical and structural reexamination of the Republican Party’s role in shaping American foreign policy from 1945 to 1953. Defying the historiography of a frictionless postwar consensus and an executive branch-centered narrative, this historical chronological study demonstrates that the Republican Party’s role in formulating the bipartisan foreign policy was a contingent and debated legislative construction. Far from representing passive submission or a surrender of partisan identity, the GOP’s role was an indispensable exercise in creating it, and due to politics being what it is, straining it. Through historical chronology spanning from 1945 to 1953, the party's center actively reconciled global commitments with conservative principles of fiscal restraint and constitutional equilibrium. By examining these legislative dynamics, this project argues that domestic political competition, when channeled through disciplined institutional frameworks, strengthens rather than weakens domestic legitimacy.
The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between the neoliberal economic policies implemented in Türkiye in the post-1980 period and crime, as well as certain social problems associated with crime, within the framework of Robert K. Merton’s Strain Theory. The study examines the economic, political and cultural dimensions of the neoliberal transformation process that became institutionalized following the 12 September military coup; it discusses how the social changes experienced during this process can be interpreted from the perspective of the Strain Theory. The study evaluates phenomena such as the structuralization of income inequalities, the transformation of welfare state practices, the rise of self-centered individualism, and the proliferation of competition- and consumption-oriented values, alongside crime and social problems considered to be linked to crime. In this context, Merton’s Strain Theory is examined as a theoretical framework suggesting that the mismatch between culturally encouraged goals of success and the legitimate means of achieving them can be linked to crime and deviant behavior. However, this study does not aim to test this relationship empirically. In this vein, Türkiye’s experience of neoliberal transformation is examined through a critical interpretative approach, drawing on the existing literature, relevant documents, official statistics and various institutional reports.
Neoliberalism remains a contested narrative within global capitalism, requiring alliances across social classes and political fractions. Within this landscape, progressive neoliberalism occupies a distinct position, representing an alliance between financial capital and progressive elements of social movements. Originating in US debates of the 2010s that questioned its “humanitarian” claims, this research extends the analysis to Europe, focusing on centrist social and liberal democratic politics. Using Nancy Fraser’s concept of progressive neoliberalism, the study applies discourse analysis to speeches of four European leaders—Rutte, Macron, Scholz, and Sanchez—showing how their rhetoric combines support for Western alliances with moderate framings of social issues.
Taşkın Toprak İpek, Emre Önkibar· Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversi...· 0 citations
Neoliberalism is an ideology that prioritizes market rationality, self-responsibility, and economic interests. Neoliberalism has been used to promote environmental solutions, but also to undermine social good. This study seeks to situate two recent environment and public health related Supreme Court cases, West Virginia v. EPA (2022) and City and County of San Francisco v. EPA (2025) within a neoliberal framework. I analyzed two case studies in order to identify the ways this powerful ideology is used in policy debates on a national stage. I examined the court opinion, concurrence, and dissent statements from each court case by identifying phrases that concur with a neoliberal ideology. I then analyzed a petition for writ of certiorari and respondent brief from each case to gain an understanding of neoliberal influences in the original court documents.
Abstract Ordo-liberalism constitutes a distinct set of ideas within twentieth-century classical liberalism. Through examining key ordo-liberal ideas expressed in the works of two prominent and representative ordo-liberals—Walter Eucken and Wilhelm Röpke—this essay explores how ordo-liberals sought to integrate the case for a market economy into commitments to specific moral, political, philosophical, and legal goals. It also assesses the relative success and failure of ordo-liberals in advancing their ideas at the intellectual level and in the policy arena.
Samuel Gregg· Social Philosophy and Policy· 0 citations
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