ABSTRACT
The intellectual and political movement known as neoliberalism is a central reference point for the New Right. The chapter begins with an outline of neoliberalism as a movement of ideas, with particular focus on the Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek and the free market network centred around the Mont Pèlerin Society. This network became a formative influence on the politics of Reagan and Thatcher in the 1980s. The Netherlands was not immune to the international revival of free market thought in this period. Under the Lubbers cabinets of the 1980s, Dutch politics took a market-oriented turn, even though this shift had a rather moderate and depoliticized character. In the 1990s, many on the right were disappointed with the superficiality of free market reform in the Netherlands. It led to a resurgence of free market radicalism, and renewed attempts to radically reshape Dutch socio-economic policy. The leading exponent of this free market current was Frits Bolkestein, the leader of the right-wing liberal party (VVD). Future right-wing populist leaders Pim Fortuyn and Geert Wilders first made their mark as audacious neoliberals in the 1990s.
