Neoliberal sermons: European Christian democracy and neoliberal governmentality

Abstract

Responsibilization is a central theme in the literature on neoliberal governmentality. An underexplored element therein is the role of Christian democracy. The single most important source for Michel Foucault’s famous lectures on neoliberal governmentality were the writings of the German ordoliberals, who were allied with the West-German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and combined neoliberal economic doctrine with Christian social ethics. This paper discusses a similar crossover: the Dutch market-oriented reforms of the 1980s. The Dutch Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) defended these reforms quite literally as a strategy of responsibilization, an attempt to create a ‘responsible society’. While leading scholars have described neoliberal governmentality as economistic, individualistic and anti-moralistic, here we find that neoliberal reform can go hand in hand with a moralistic and communitarian discourse.