Timothy J. Dowd and Frank Dobbin (Emory University – Department of Sociology and Harvard University – Department of Sociology) have posted Origins of the Myth of Neo-Liberalism: Regulation in the First Century of US Railroading (The State, Regulation and the Economy: An Historical Perspective, Edward Elgar, 2001) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Neo-liberalism has two components. One is historical, and it revolves around the idea that advanced economies – particularly those of Britain and the US – developed under conditions that are best characterized as laissez-faire. The other is definitional, and it revolves around the idea that one group of industrial policies can be defined as 'non-interventionist.'