Abstract
The “new economists” are much less remembered than the anti-totalitarian “new philosophers.” But although they have received very little scholarly attention, the new economists had a profound impact on France’s intellectual and ideological landscape in the late 1970s. For it was through them that American and Austrian “neoliberalism” were finally introduced to France. Curiously, however, despite the fact that this current of economic thought had long been marginalized in the Hexagon, France is sometimes considered to be the birthplace of a “neoliberal” movement. For it was in Paris in 1938 that the Colloque Walter Lippmann was held on the occasion of the translation into French of the famous American columnist’s book The Good Society. Organized by the philosopher Louis Rougier, this international gathering was attended by key liberal figures such as Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich von Hayek, and Wilhelm Röpke. Its French delegation included, among others, Jacques Rueff, Louis Baudin, and Louis Marlio. It was at this event, which gave birth in 1939 to the short-lived Centre International pour la Renovation du Libéralisme (CIERL), that the term “neo-liberalism” was coined.1 This concept was not, however, unambiguous. Formulated as if in symmetry with contemporaneous French “neo-socialism,” it expressed a desire to renovate liberal doctrine in response to the Depression by making it more socially and economically interventionist, defining a sort of “third way” between the old “laissez-faire” liberalism of the “Manchester school” and contemporary dirigiste and planiste economics.
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Notes
On this topic, I take the liberty of referring to the reedition of the proceedings of the Colloque Walter Lippmann and its preface: Serge Audier, Aux origines du “néolibéralisme.” La Colloque Lippmann (Lormont: Le Bord de l’eau, 2012).
Kevin Brookes, Diffusion et transformation du néolibéralisme en France des années 1960 aux années 1980: l’Association pour la Liberté et le Progrès Social et les “nouveaux économistes,” Mémoire de Master 2 (Grenoble: Université Pierre Mendès-France, 2012).
Philippe Lefournier, “Les ‘nouveaux économistes’ aux Etats-Unis,” Problèmes Économiques 1615 (March 21, 1979): 14.
Jean-Jacques Rosa, preface to Contre Galbraith, by Milton Friedman (Paris: Economica, 1977), 5.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Henri Lepage, Demain le capitalisme (Paris: Pluriel, 1978), 41.
Ibid.
Ibid.
On Revel, see Philippe Boulanger, Jean-François Revel ou la démocratie libérale à l’épreuve du XXe siècle (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2014).
É. Théophilakis and B. Rochette, “Avec les ‘nouveaux économistes,’ allons tous au marché!,” Autrement 20 (September 1979): 170.
Ibid.
Ibid., 171.
Ibid.
See, for example, Alain Bihr and J.-M. Heinrich, La néo-social-démocratie ou le capitalisme autogéré (Paris: Le sycomore, 1980). Within the Socialist Party, this book was widely read by opponents of the “second left” based at Jean-Pierre Chevènement’s CERES.
Henri Lepage, Autogestion et capitalisme. Réponse à l’anti-économie, préface M. Drancourt (Paris: Masson, 1978).
Régis Debray, Modeste contribution aux discours et cérémonies du dixième anniversaire (Paris: Maspero, 1978), 58.
Ibid., 59.
Ibid., 60.
Ibid., 59–60.
Ibid., 60.
Alain Finkielkraut, La rivincita e l’utopia. Viaggio attraverso la nuova destra in America (Milan: Rizzoli, 1980), 34.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid., 35.
Ibid.
Michel Foucault, Naissance de la biopolitique. Cours au Collège de France. 1978–1979, édition M. Sennelart (Paris: Seuil-Gallimard, 2004).
Ibid., 238.
Ibid., 252. Foucault’s use of the word “cynicism” in this passage should not be read pejoratively: he had used this word in a positive sense—referring to a critical attitude toward governments—since before his 1979 course, and we know the importance that he subsequently attached to this school of thought.
Jean-Jacques Rosa, “Vrais et faux besoins,” in L’économique retrouvée, ed. Jean-Jacques Rosa (Paris: Economica, 1977), 164.
Lionel Stoléru, Vaincre la pauvreté dans les pays riches (Paris: Flammarion, 1974).
Christian Stoffaës, “De l’impôt négatif sur le revenu,” Contrepoint 11 (1973): 31–50. On Contrepoint, see Chapter 1 by Gwendal Châton in the present volume.
On this controversy and for a new interpretation of Foucault’s relationship with the liberal moment, see Serge Audier, Penser le “néolibéralisme.” Foucault, le moment néolibéral et la crise du socialisme (Lormont: Le Bord de l’eau, 2015). See too Chapter 7 by Michael C. Behrent in the present volume.
Ibid.
Club de l’Horloge, Les racines du futur. Demain la France (Paris: Masson, 1977); H. de Lesquen et Le Club de l’Horloge, La politique du vivant (Paris: Albin Michel, 1979).
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Audier, S. (2016). The French Reception of American Neoliberalism in the Late 1970s. In: Sawyer, S.W., Stewart, I. (eds) In Search of the Liberal Moment. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137581266_9
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