Early neoliberalism crystallized partly in intellectual dialogue with Carl Schmitt’s anti-liberalism

Evidence

Rüstow had developed his position regarding the concept of the human person in a critical dialogue with Carl Schmitt, the legal philosopher who had erected an anti-liberal edifice of thought throughout the 1920s and whom Rüstow had admired for some time. In a letter to Schmitt from July 4, 1930, Rüstow remarked on the relation between a value-based rule of law and a self-limiting notion of “the political.” “It seems to me,” he wrote, “that the idea of a democratic state based on the concept of humanity represents not only a possible, but in a certain way an unavoidable utopia.” Other early neoliberals followed similar arguments, particularly Röpke, who built his “Civitas Humana” on the same fundamental concept, calling it at times “economic humanism” or “humane economy.” — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 358

Categorization

• QUESTION: Rüstow admired Schmitt’s work for some time then built his human-person concept in critical dialogue with it — worth tracing how the anti-liberal edifice shaped (not just opposed) early neoliberal doctrine.
• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on Schmitt’s paradoxical influence on postwar liberal/neoliberal order-building; also resonates with the reader’s map of distinct neoliberal intellectual varieties. — connects to: Neoliberalism’s double-truth doctrine originated in Hayek’s covert borrowing from Schmitt — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 239; Neoliberals invoked Carl Schmitt’s sovereignty doctrine to justify backing the Chilean coup — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2149; Naomi Klein identified Carl Schmitt’s sovereign-emergency doctrine as a core neoliberal tenet — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2157 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Naomi Klein identified Carl Schmitt’s sovereign-emergency doctrine as a core neoliberal tenet #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2157
• Neoliberals invoked Carl Schmitt’s sovereignty doctrine to justify backing the Chilean coup #complicates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2149