by Assar Lindbeck — a Hayekian neoliberal Lindbeck’s interactions with the New Left and Neo-Malthusians, focusing on issues like environmental sustainability and social justice, exemplify how his authorship developed in an antagonistic context against his interlocutors. He used Hayekian epistemology to counter the grievances of his adversaries, arguing that market mechanisms were superior in addressing environmental and social challenges that he simultaneously acknowledged and problematised, such as pollution, unemployment, and the feeling of powerlessness in bureaucratic society. Inspired by Michel Dean and a post-structural reading of Quentin Skinner, I have shown that it is only possible to understand the genealogy of Lindbeck’s authorship by
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Lars Pålsson Syll considers the following as important: Economics
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Assar Lindbeck — a Hayekian neoliberal
Lindbeck’s interactions with the New Left and Neo-Malthusians, focusing on issues like environmental sustainability and social justice, exemplify how his authorship developed in an antagonistic context against his interlocutors. He used Hayekian epistemology to counter the grievances of his adversaries, arguing that market mechanisms were superior in addressing environmental and social challenges that he simultaneously acknowledged and problematised, such as pollution, unemployment, and the feeling of powerlessness in bureaucratic society. Inspired by Michel Dean and a post-structural reading of Quentin Skinner, I have shown that it is only possible to understand the genealogy of Lindbeck’s authorship by recognising how it was articulated in opposition to his adversaries …
I have challenged the view of Lindbeck as a somewhat typical social democratic economist, especially before the significant ideological shift of the 1980s. Understanding his role within social democracy is however essential for grasping his neoliberal trajectory. Lindbeck’s neoclassical and Hayekian perspectives were apparent as early as the 1950s. Key to this is Lindbeck’s early articulation of social democracy as an agent of the strong state, whose emancipatory project was compatible with capitalism, the defence of property rights, and governing through the utilisation of markets. This articulation opened up a compatibility with Hayek’s vision of neoliberalism, where the focus on the state was central, rather than merely a form of social liberal anomaly. I here underscore the need to trace the history of neoliberalism in Sweden back further than the neoliberal turn of the 1980s.
And those of us who remember Lindbeck’s treatment of Sven Grassman know that, in addition to being a neoliberal market fundamentalist, he was also a ruthless power-driven individual. Yours truly personally experienced his unrestrained unwillingness to accept other economic viewpoints than his own several times. On one occasion, I was invited to the Nobel Museum in Stockholm to talk about the ‘Nobel Prize’ in economics. Lindbeck then called and gave the museum a thorough dressing-down, questioning how they could dare to invite ‘such a person’ as Professor Syll. Guess that says it all …