Dieter Plehwe

WZB Berlin Social Science Center · Research Unit Inequality and Social Policy

Keynesianism and Ordoliberalism differ with regard to labour markets and collective bargaining in particular. Contrary to Foucault’s claims, however, Walter Eucken conditionally supported Wilhelm Lautenbach’s proto-Keynesian proposal to use public investment to overcome economic stagnation in the early 1930s. And the late 1960s witnessed a pragmati...

Since the financial crisis of 2008, Ordoliberalism emerged from relative obscurity to become one of the crucial terms of analysis across a wide range of academic literatures and public discussion. In fact, it became the main reference for a number of issues, including assessments of the attempted resolution of the Eurozone crisis, arguments about G...

Germany is known as a leader in energy transition, but the country keeps falling short of meeting stated objectives. While attention has been high on climate change related policy leadership, the competing domestic alliances in the field of energy transition have received scant attention. In Germany, the strong momentum of the conversion to renewab...

The »return of great power competition« between (among others) the US, China, Russia and the EU is a major topic in contemporary public debate. But why do we think of world politics in terms of »competition«? Which information and which rules enable states and other actors in world politics to »compete« with one another? Which competitive strategie...

Austerity-related expertise and mainstream economics in particular have been widely blamed for locking in austerity regimes and reproducing austerity policies in European countries and in the EU. Austerity is here understood in the broader sense of social reforms to reduce private sector charges beyond the narrower ‘technocratic’ concern with balan...

Austerity, defined broadly as a compound of fiscal consolidation, public sector restructuring and labour market flexibilization, has played a key role in the decades-long hegemony of neoliberalism, and in its subsequent crisis. After a brief period of fiscal stimulus after the Great Financial Crisis of 2007–08, there was an intensification of auste...

Economics has been considered the academic discipline most responsible for the lock in of austerity doctrines in Germany. While the case of homogeneity in economics has been overstated, the controversy around economic policy advice goes on. On the one hand authors make a strong case of hierarchy and bias in the profession and in the media. On the o...

This collection of original essays explores the myriad expressions of austerity since the 2008 financial crisis. Case studies drawn from Canada, Australia and the European Union provide extensive comparative analysis of austerity --fiscal consolidation and structural reforms to labour and the public sector. Contributions examine such themes as priv...

The »return of great power competition« between (among others) the US, China, Russia and the EU is a major topic in contemporary public debate. But why do we think of world politics in terms of »competition«? Which information and which rules enable states and other actors in world politics to »compete« with one another? Which competitive strategie...

This article takes stock of the current literature on neoliberalism and discusses its conceptual benefits, challenges, and avenues for further research. In particular, the article focuses on the transnational network around the Mont Pèlerin Society (MPS) and its activities in marketing the marketization of formerly non-market spheres. Rather than t...

Las difíciles circunstancias económicas de México, latinoamérica y el Sur global, exacerbadas por la pandemia de Covid-19, hacen necesario revisar y cuestionar los supuestos y la hegemonía en los hechos del pensamiento neoliberal y de la teoría económica neoclásica en que se basa. Si uno se sincera, este neoliberalismo extremo y muchas de las insti...

Ongoing controversies around the existence of neoliberalism can be resolved by way of more clearly delineating the neoliberal core. In addition to key concepts like property rights, freedom of contract and rule of law protecting property owners from discrete political intervention, the opposition to both laisser-faire liberalism and collectivism ca...

Since the advent of the European debt crisis in 2009, it has become common to hear descriptions of the European Union as a neoliberal machine hardwired to enforce austerity and to block projects of redistribution or solidarity. Yet by adopting an explanatory framework associating neoliberalism with supranational organizations like the EU, NAFTA, an...

Tales of neoliberalism’s death are serially overstated. Seemingly repudiated by historical events and yet staggering on like an undead cadaver, neoliberalism was proclaimed a “zombie” ideology following the 2008 financial crisis. After the major political shocks of 2016, the global rise of the far right, and the rebirth of democratic socialist poli...

In this article we critically engage with the term and concept of “post-neoliberalism”, delineate different meanings in the literature and arrive at the conclusion that the term leaves more questions open than it answers. In order to clarify the continuity and variety of neoliberalism in Latin America, we draw on literature that investigates the de...

Austerity has become a key term in economic and social policy debates. Although austerity has been contested both in terms of economic theory and policy-making, it has been remarkably resilient. This resilience has been explained, for example, in structural and institutional terms by the rise of the ‘debt state’. Other explanations have emphasised...

Transnational think tank politics and networking represent a new frontier in critical think tank research. This chapter compares and contrasts neoliberal think tank networks in Europe and Latin America. The authors track and trace their historical evolution and the different contextual parameters in each region, classify the think tanks involved an...

This article bridges the gap between the intellectual history and critical geography of neoliberalism through a study of the overlooked figure of the German economist Herbert Giersch. As a public economist and director of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy from 1969 to 1989, Giersch blended German traditions of location theory with liberal gl...

Die Analyse der Partei AfD stellt die Forschung vor einige Probleme. Anfangs wurden wirtschaftsliberale, nationalkonservative und rechtspopulistische Strömungen unterschieden. Der Auszug des Ökonomenflügels um Bernd Lucke und Olaf Henkel im Jahr 2015 verfestigte das Bild einer rechtspopulistischen Partei, zumal die Abwehr von Einwanderung gegenüber...

This book opens the often narrow discourse on the future of Europe and criticises the false dichotomy between nationalism on the one hand and a neoliberal version of Europe on the other. Existing emancipatory projects from across the continent are presented together with reflections on strategies to achieve a democratic Europe beyond the nation sta...

https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137574930

The welfare state has, over the past 40 years, come under increasing attack from liberals who consider comprehensive welfare provision inimical to liberalism. Yet many of the architects of the post-World War II welfare states were liberals. Taking as examples three cases not often considered together-Britain, Germany, and Japan-this volume investig...

The global financial and economic crisis is widely considered a fundamental crisis of neoliberalism. But the contribution of neoliberals to the ongoing debate on causes and consequences of the crisis has been a substantial, if belittled or even ignored, factor of influence. A review of postcrisis activities of organized neoliberal networks directs...

Als ich vor etwa zwanzig Jahren im Rahmen einer Recherche schriftliches Interesse bei der damals neuen Partei Bund freier Bürger (BfB) äußerte, löste ich eine bemerkenswerte Versendung von Material aus: U. a. erhielt ich ein Buch des Vorsitzenden der Schweizerischen Volkspartei (SVP), Christoph Blocher, einige Nummern der christlichen Wochenzeitung...

Die Verlagerung von politischen Entscheidungskompetenzen auf die europäische Ebene hat im Zuge der 1990er Jahre zu einer starken Europäisierung der politischen Interessenvertretung beigetragen. Traditionell föderal strukturierte Verbände haben in diesem Zusammenhang Entscheidungsverfahren zentralisiert, neue Großkonzerngruppen entstanden. Neben den...

An increasing complexity and heavy reliance on research in the formulation of public policy is the backdrop to the ongoing politicization of science. Issues and problems around the accessibility, credibility, legitimacy and accountability of expertise are greatly aggravated in supranational policy arenas. While antidemocratic dangers have tradition...

The founding and rapid membership development of the euro-sceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) in 2013 follows similar developments of right wing populist parties in other EU member states. Since the no-votes in popular referenda in France and the Netherlands the erstwhile “permissive consensus” with regard to core questions of European unificatio...

Die Verkehrspolitik ist angesichts des ungebrochenen Wachstums und der ungleichen Entwicklung der Sparten im Güterverkehr überfordert. Insbesondere der andauernde Niedergang des Eisenbahnverkehrs gefährdet nicht zuletzt die klimapolitischen Strategien Europas. Traditionell auf nationaler Ebene verfolgte Strategien („vermeiden, verlagern und verbess...

http://www.stateofnature.org/?p=6601

How is the European crisis discussed in the USA? Drawing on publications from different political-intellectual groups, whose positions can be located by their proximity to think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, the Center for American Progress and the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), various patterns of explanation or interpretation of the Eu...

This article introduces research on modes of economic governance at the national level, in the form of varieties of capitalism, and corporate governance, at the firm level. The findings indicate that economic modes of governance at the national level are not uniform across time and space because institutions that govern economic relations have deve...

Why, in the era of neoliberalism, Argentinean monetary policymakers rejected the kind of flexible monetary exchange rates recommended by the ‘Washington Consensus’ remains a puzzle. The literature has mainly contrasted external and internal factors of influence and constraints to explain the country's peculiar road to neoliberalism. In this paper,...

Introduction, The critique of state-centered approaches to international relations and international political economy has resulted in a rapidly growing literature focusing on a variety of “private authorities” in international relations (Cutler et al. 1999). In this literature, arrays of transnational communities are prominent subjects of analysis...

In the context of current programmes in support of developmental think tanks in selected countries of the global south, discourse coalition theory is presented as a promising framework with which to study sprawling think tank networks. To this end, recent contributions to the history of science and to the still nascent field of think tank research...

Europäisierung, Governance und quantitative (Mess-)Verfahren Der grundsätzliche wissenschaftliche Streit über den Charakter beziehungsweise die Fi-nalität der europäischen Integration – die Frage der Staatswerdung – erscheint in Anbetracht der Vertiefungs-und Erweiterungsschritte der 1980er und 1990er Jahre und im Hinblick auf die vielfältige europ...

In the late 1990s, in reaction to growing protests against its insistence on the universal applicability of market-oriented development programs (the 'Washington Consensus'), the World Bank reinvented itself as a 'global knowledge bank'. The Bank has gone to considerable effort to improve and decentralize its knowledge management, aiming to increas...

Labour market development in the logistics sector. Importance, dynamics and (de-)regulation of the distribution economy. Deregulation and innovation in commercial and industrial transportation, warehousing and distribution led to the rise of a modern logistics sector. Both for Germany and the US scholars have argued that expanding logistics service...

„Lieber mit dem Brummi leben“ waren die Worte einer Image-Kampagne, die von den Verbänden des Straßengüterverkehrs in den 1970er Jahren entwickelt wurde, um sich gegen populäre Vorschläge von dessen Verlagerung auf die Schiene zu wenden. Der Straßengüterverkehr steht indes aufgrund von Umweltbelastungen und Unfallrisiken sowie der zum Teil stark üb...

Traditionell dienen vergleichende Studien in der Politik- und Organisationsforschung der Feststellung von nationalen Unterschieden und Gemeinsamkeiten im Hinblick auf Institutionen, Organisationen und (politische) Systeme insgesamt. Bei einem Vergleich von Mitgliedsländern der EU wird dabei häufig die vertikale Dimension der europäischen Integratio...

Neoliberalismus und Postfordismus sind Neologismen, die über die Bezeichnung epochaler Veränderungen des Kapitalismus seit der strukturellen Krise der 1970er Jahre hinaus einiges gemeinsam haben. Die Präfixe „neo“ und „post“ kennzeichnen zunächst eine Vergangenheit: Liberalismus als historisch bestimmte bürgerliche Weltanschauung (Gleichheit, Freih...

The radical opening of the Mexican economy - including Mexico's membership in the North American Free Trade Area and the World Trade Organisation - was engineered by the longstanding ruling power PRI. Vicente Fox's pro business party PAN, in power since 2000, is now increasing these efforts. The author observes an apparent lack of neoliberal agency...

Employing Gramsci’s concept of hegemony the rise of neoliberalism to the dominant force in the present hegemonic constellation is scrutinized. The origin and development of the Mont Pèlerin Society of right wing liberals around Hayek is traced and the network of think tanks stretching from the British Institute of Economic Affairs to the Heritage F...

"The paper documents and analyses the rise of a transnational transport and logistics' industry within the European Union. Neither a global commodity chain, nor a national business system approach is considered adequate to help comprehend trans border reorganization within the European Union signalling a need for an approach to organization researc...

Neue Konzepte der Logistik- und Transportorganisation verändern die räumliche und funktionale Arbeitsteilung in Europa. Im Zuge der Entwicklung des Europäischen Binnenmarktes gewinnen transnationale und erweiterte Logistikleistungen eine zentrale Rolle bei der Steuerung grenzüberschreitender Produktionsnetzwerke. Die Beiträge in diesem Discussion P...

The paper discusses the transformation of national transport systems in Europe into a transnational European system. While the modern transportation revolution is frequently cited as independent variable to support the globalization thesis, the way transport systems function is by and !arge ignored. Examining the transport system as dependent varia...