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Assuming Everything, Except Responsibility: On Blaming Economists for Neoliberalism

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Assembling Neoliberalism

Abstract

Despite their self-presentation as objective, disinterested observers, economists are key actors in the assemblage of the very objects they study: the economy, the market and the state. Indeed, economic expertise has developed hand-in-hand with the technocracy over the last hundred years as it has sought to manage, grow, control and delimit these objects. As neoliberal ideas from the Mont Pelerin Society have found their way into the technocracy in recent decades, they have, to varying extents, changed the ways these objects are understood in themselves and in relation to each other, with consequent changes in how they are assembled. But despite these changes, there are continuities, not least the ongoing significance of the technocracy and the imagined distance its expertise maintains from its objects.

The whole joke goes: “Economic forecasters assume everything. Except responsibility” (from http://www.economistjokes.com/jokes).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    Russell Prince

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  1. Russell Prince
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Humanities & Social Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW, Australia

    Vaughan Higgins

  2. Office of the Provost, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

    Wendy Larner

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Prince, R. (2017). Assuming Everything, Except Responsibility: On Blaming Economists for Neoliberalism. In: Higgins, V., Larner, W. (eds) Assembling Neoliberalism. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58204-1_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58204-1_3

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