Early neoliberals justified the market primarily through political and moral virtues, not efficiency

Evidence

The early neoliberals saw themselves as fighting for more than an economic programme; at stake, they believed, was the survival of ‘Western civilization’. Faced with widespread demands for socialism, state welfare provision and economic planning, they turned their attention to the moral values and subjective qualities underpinning a competitive market order. ‘Self-discipline, a sense of justice, honesty, fairness, chivalry, moderation, public spirit, respect for human dignity, firm ethical norms – all of these are things which people must possess before they go to market and compete with each other’, wrote the German ordoliberal, Wilhelm Röpke. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 70 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

If economic disintegration was a product of moral disintegration, then a revival of dreams of perpetual peace required the development of moral and legal standards to support the global spread of the competitive market by protecting private property and human dignity. The market economy, Röpke argued, ‘belongs essentially to a liberal social structure and one which respects individual rights’, while non-market, collectivist coordination is coercive, ignoring such rights. … For the neoliberals, human rights could only play this role if they broke with the rationalism of the French Revolution and fostered submission to the market order. While Christianity could not provide history or the market with a providential guarantee, they believed it could secure the moral foundations of a competitive market order ‘truly compatible with human dignity’. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 120 (#expands, via linked claim)

The human person, its inviolability and dignity, was, however, the dominating global concept at the time, particularly in international law. Any positive law, any constitution, is ultimately based on basic moral presuppositions. Early neoliberalism built its economic and political ideology on the same basic norm. Röpke explicitly said the economy was of “second rank,” the first rank being the imposition of a moral authority. Jacques Rueff could not have agreed more, for, he argued, if man did not impose a moral authority he would not be civilized. To avoid political catastrophes and too much arbitrary political will, the rule of law was conceptualized as a check on politics, taming it and keeping it within a set frame of norms and red lines. The rule of law was seen as the best way to guarantee the inviolability of the human person. Early neoliberals added the price mechanism to the formula: its smooth, unhampered running was the benchmark for the liberal society and economy. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 363 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Early neoliberals depicted civilization as indistinguishably moral, racial and economic — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 63; Neoliberalism’s distinctiveness was not homo economicus but a demand for moral foundations for markets. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 19; Early neoliberals framed market competition as dependent on prior moral virtues. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 70 (+4 more)

Related

• Early neoliberals framed market competition as dependent on prior moral virtues. (similarity 0.94)
• Neoliberals framed the spread of markets as dependent on moral and religious foundations (similarity 0.91)
• Early market advocacy was framed as moral anti-politics, not economics alone (similarity 0.91)
• Neoliberalism’s distinctiveness was not homo economicus but a demand for moral foundations for markets. (similarity 0.90)
• Early neoliberalism subordinated economic machinery to a prior moral authority and rule of law (similarity 0.90)
• Neoliberals saw that competitive markets require an actively constructed legal and moral framework. (similarity 0.89)
• Neoliberals traced market morality back to eighteenth-century liberal philosophy (similarity 0.89)
• Neoliberals rejected the deistic self-regulating market as naive optimism. (similarity 0.87)
• Early neoliberals depicted civilization as indistinguishably moral, racial and economic (similarity 0.85)
• Early neoliberals championed human rights as instruments for market order, not as social protection (similarity 0.85)
• Neoliberals judged human rights solely by whether they supported market relations. (similarity 0.85)
• Neoliberals reframed human rights as instruments of market submission (similarity 0.84)
• Neoliberals crafted their own human rights account supporting market order. (similarity 0.84)
• German ordoliberals rejected laissez-faire, insisting markets need moral and institutional frameworks (similarity 0.84)
• Neoliberal thinkers rejected natural-rights foundations, deriving morality from market evolution (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• Early neoliberals framed market competition as dependent on prior moral virtues. #corroborates (1.00) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 70
• Neoliberals framed the spread of markets as dependent on moral and religious foundations #expands (0.90) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 120
• Early neoliberalism subordinated economic machinery to a prior moral authority and rule of law #expands (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 363