From Vienna to the WTO

• Author: Harold James
• Pages: 59-59

September 2018 | FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT 59

BOOK REVIEWS

From Vienna

to the WTO

NEOLIBERALISM IS NOW

the go-to moniker for every-

thing that went wrong in the late 20 th century and

the new millennium. Of ten a term of abuse, it is a

synonym for a crassly materia listic and supercia l

belief in the inherent superiority of market s. Its stan-

dard bearers were British Prime M inister Margaret

atcher and US President Ronald Reagan.

Today many prominent gures, such as Charles

Moore (atcher’s ocial biographer), Oliver

Letwin (a British Conser vative intellectua l), and

the writer David Frum cry mea cu lpa and complain

that greater home ownership has produced more

debt than securit y and that exible labor markets

are a threat rather th an an opportunity.

Slobodian aims in h is latest book to trace an

intellectual hi story from the Habsburg Empire

and the glittering intellectual cultu re of Vienna

to the World Trade Organizat ion. He argues that

the eventually domina nt vision of economic order

cared less about libert y and laissez faire and the

legacy of Adam Smith t han about protection of

property again st radical politica l demands that

followed from both socialism a nd nationalism.

e book is less interested in the na ncial infra-

structure of global ization than in t he makings

of today’s trade regime. Some delightful insights

show how many modern views of globaliz ation—

threatened by tari wa lls, vulnerable to a spiral

of declining trade —originated in Vienna. Cl ive

Morrison-Bell, at the Vienna Chamber of Commerce,

built a physical model of Europe with wooden tar i

walls; Oska r Morgenstern, at the Vienna Institute

for Business Cycle Research, graphic ally depicted

the shrinkin g world trade of the Great Depression.

Slobodian places his genea logy above that of

the Virginia (public choice) and Chicago (mone-

tarism and deregu lation) schools. e key players

in the new story—Friedrich Hayek a nd Wilhelm

Röpkes—were reacting to t hree shocks: World

War I, the Great Depression, and decolonization.

In response, these intellect ual pioneers turned

to international institutions to provide a regime

that guara nteed property rights and international

division of labor based on stability. e original

candidate for the gua rantor of a supranational

non-territorial was the International C hamber

of Commerce, then subsequently the Leag ue

of Nations.

Slobodian’s heroes of neoliberalism viewed this

order as a necessary balancing of the politica l

business of democratization. Without limits,

democracy might make too many (unfulllable)

promises. Domestic constitutional order could be

a constraint, but that order would be more secure

if anchored in an international leg al framework.

Slobodian has produced a deep a nd interesting

book, though perhaps not deep enough. He pro-

poses that his heroes a re defending property just

to protect the status quo. But that interpretation

is not convincing: the interwa r fathers of modern

neoliberalism were responding to a 1930s world

of arbitrary consc ation of property—often based

on national, racial, or religious identity— that was

an intrinsic part of ma rginalization, dehumani za-

tion, and ultimately destruction. eir analysis

cannot be used to object to tax ation, even high

and progressive taxat ion, as long as it is equally

and impartia lly applied. e defense of property

was a part of, and emanated f rom, deeper concern

with the protection of human dignity.

HAROLD JAMES, historian, Princeton University and IMF

Quinn Slobodian

Globalists: The End of

Empire and the Birth of

Neoliberalism

Harvard University Press,

Cambridge, MA, 2018, 381 pp., $35

RMED

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