Early market advocacy was framed as moral anti-politics, not economics alone

Evidence

One of my key arguments here is that the neoliberal argument for the competitive market was itself moral and political, rather than strictly economic. Early neoliberals attributed to the market a series of anti-political virtues: checking and dispersing power, facilitating social cooperation, pacifying conflict, and securing individual liberty and rights. They presented commercial or ‘civil society’ as a space of mutually beneficial, voluntary relations that contrasted with the violence, coercion and conflict of the political realm. Market coordination was less a means to enhance productivity and efficiency than a substitute for the violence, coercion and despotism that they argued were endemic to politics – and especially to mass politics. Only the widespread adoption of the morals of the market, Hayek argued, offered ‘the distant hope of a universal order of peace’. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 31

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines what the author means by treating neoliberalism as a moral/political project rather than merely an economic one.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s prior knowledge that market discourse is often justified in instrumental efficiency terms; this flips it to a moral antithesis-of-politics framing. — connects to: Early neoliberals framed market competition as dependent on prior moral virtues. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 70; Early neoliberals justified the market primarily through political and moral virtues, not efficiency; Neoliberals framed the spread of markets as dependent on moral and religious foundations — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 120 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Early neoliberals justified the market primarily through political and moral virtues, not efficiency #corroborates (0.90)
• Early neoliberals framed market competition as dependent on prior moral virtues. #expands (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 70
• Neoliberals framed the spread of markets as dependent on moral and religious foundations #expands (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 120
• Neoliberalism’s distinctiveness was not homo economicus but a demand for moral foundations for markets. #expands (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 19
• Early neoliberalism subordinated economic machinery to a prior moral authority and rule of law #corroborates (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 363
• Free-market advocates believed market defense required a holistic spiritual worldview #expands (0.80) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 354
• Early free-market economists deliberately adopted progressive-sounding positions to shield their deeper agenda #complicates (0.75) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 137