Citizens United turns neoliberal rationality into a constitutional hermeneutic governing law.
Evidence
What has happened here? Democratic political speech, far from being a delicate, monopolizable, and corruptible medium for public persuasion becomes, in and as a marketplace, an unhindered capital right. Similarly, the political, far from being a field of highly specific powers through which common existence is negotiated, protected, or transformed, becomes, as a market, a field for advancing every kind of capital—human, corporate, financial, cultural. Both of these moves make perfect sense insofar as neoliberal rationality recognizes market conduct as the sole principle of action and market metrics as the sole measures for every sphere of human action. Importantly, the Kennedy opinion, more than merely drawing on this rationality, articulates it as a set of principles for interpreting the Constitution, construing democracy, and producing political life. Neoliberal rationality constitutes the hermeneutics through which constitutional principles are read and applied in Citizens United and in this way enacts the economization of politics through law. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 328
Categorization
- XREF: The ‘hermeneutics’ claim deepens the thesis of chapter 2 that homo oeconomicus becomes the governing model of the subject across all spheres. — connects to: Governance replaces justice and right with efficiency and efficacy. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 253; Citizens United remakes the political subject as an economic one — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 306; Citizens United’s logical strain reveals a new set of meanings being crafted — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 345 (+10 more)
- DEEPTHINKING: The move from market rationality as a theory of action to as a mode of constitutional interpretation — economization enacted through law — is the chapter’s most paradigm-shifting observation.
Broader Connections
- Neoliberalism is a governing rationality, not just economic policy or ideology.
#expands(0.85) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 14 - Citizens United redefines influence as following the money and super PACS as independent speech
#expands(0.82) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 345 - Neoliberalism economizes justice, sovereignty, and the rule of law
#expands(0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 32 - Neoliberalism extends market logic to regulate all human behavior.
#expands(0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 32 - Neoliberalism is a governing rationality that frames all life in market terms
#corroborates(0.78) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 357 - Citizens United’s logical strain reveals a new set of meanings being crafted
#expands(0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 345 - Under Citizens United logic only corporations merit full legal rights
#expands(0.75) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 386 - Neoliberalism now governs through soft power and common sense, not force
#expands(0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 58 - States use law to shape a specific type of citizen and civilization
#corroborates(0.72) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 924 - Neoliberalism redefines citizenship as mere customerhood to justify consolidating power within the state.
#qualifies(0.70) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 159