Illiberalism is not the cure for neoliberalism.

Last week was all disagreement with Matt Yglesias’s defense of anti-anti-neoliberalism. This post takes up a different argument about neoliberalism altogether. On Monday, James Pogue had a piece in the New York Times, laying out Senator Chris Murphy’s case against neoliberalism. There is a lot that is interesting in the piece - but it may persuade an unwary reader that only conservatives, including a couple of notably illiberal conservatives, really get what is wrong with neoliberalism. I believe, to the contrary, that the best arguments against neoliberalism come from within liberalism itself. Specifically, politicians like Murphy ought look to liberal philosophers of democracy such as Danielle Allen,* rather than anti-liberal ones such as Patrick Deneen. Instead of borrowing conservative formulations of the “common good”, they should be thinking about strengthening democracy. At first it might seem surprising that Pogue’s article has so little to say about the Biden administration’s

Last week was all disagreement with Matt Yglesias’s defense of anti-anti-neoliberalism. This post takes up a different argument about neoliberalism altogether. On Monday, James Pogue had a piece in the New York Times, laying out Senator Chris Murphy’s case against neoliberalism. There is a lot that is interesting in the piece - but it may persuade an unwary reader that only conservatives, including a couple of notably illiberal conservatives, really get what is wrong with neoliberalism. I believe, to the contrary, that the best arguments against neoliberalism come from within liberalism itself