1. Navigating world order: neoliberalism between nationalism and cosmopolitanism.
- Author
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Pedersen, Stefan
- Subjects
- *
INTERNATIONAL organization , *ECONOMIC policy , *NATIONALISM , *NEOLIBERALISM , *COSMOPOLITANISM , *BUSINESSPEOPLE - Abstract
Through a morphological analysis of early neoliberal discourse, it is argued that preserving the system of states became integral to neoliberalism after a period of contestation. It is common knowledge that the early neoliberals thought of economic nationalism as an archaic practice. But it is less well known that they also learned to dread institutional cosmopolitanism. The first cohort of neoliberal theorists, despite displaying cosmopolitan propensities economically and morally, decided during the 1940s to abandon the cosmopolitan political principles that several early institutional designs had followed. The neoliberals realized that nationalism had an upside. Their reasoning was pragmatic rather than democratic. A cosmopolitan world order, with a central democratic decision-making body – such as a world government answerable to a world parliament elected by the world populace – would more likely than not be anathema to their primary project; creating a world economy for entrepreneurs. Hence, they finally embraced borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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