ABSTRACT
Since the early 1980s, critical left-wing intellectuals have undertaken great efforts
to deconstruct the world-wide neoliberal ideologies in ascendance. Most analyses
dealt either with the social or class character of neoliberal politics, with the
ideological impact of more comprehensive neoliberal concepts and ideas, or with
the history of neoliberal intellectuals and think tanks operating in an increasingly
ramified network of collaboration. Not a few are inclined to regard the history
and present networks of neoliberal communication as paramount for a better
understanding of the overall success of neoliberal ideas and strategies (see Cockett
1994; Plehwe and Walpen 1999; Dixon 2000a). And some go so far as to see the
emergence of neoliberal thought as a model for the re-emergence of alternative
left-wing concepts and socialist ideas. Eventually, this would mean building a
counter-hegemonic network of critical think tanks to provide the ideas that might
trigger a fundamental shift in public discourses, perhaps during a fundamental
crisis somewhere in the future.
