Ideas-Centred Explanations of the Rise of Neoliberalism: A Critique

This article critically examines the assumption that the spread of neoliberal policy programs of privatisation, deregulation and marketisation is explained principally by policymakers coming under the influence of fundamentalist neoliberal ideas and the think tanks through which they were proselytised. The article outlines the conditions that must be satisfied for this thesis of ideational causation to be considered plausible. By examining the relationship between neoliberal think tanks and the Howard Coalition government in Australia, the article offers indicative evidence against this dominant conceptual framework for understanding the rise of neoliberalism. It concludes that this narrative offers a poor guide to understanding actually existing neoliberalism.