Economic liberalism proved separable from democratic political commitments.
Evidence
His economic liberalism had apparently no intrinsic connection to civil liberties and democratic political institutions, as will also become clear in his later interventions as a public intellectual. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 323
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: This is the load-bearing counterintuitive core of the whole chapter: ordoliberalism’s market commitments did not entail commitments to democracy or civil liberties — challenging the common assumption that market liberalism is intrinsically linked to political liberalism.
- SEED: Essay angle: ‘How market-liberal thought outlived democracy — the elective affinity between ordoliberalism and authoritarian political forms, from the Third Reich to Pinochet’s Chile.’
- XREF: connects to: Free-market economists of the era placed democratic will above economic principle. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 100; Democracy and liberalism can be decoupled and even opposed — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 235; Economic liberalism defines the political, collapsing the distinction between them — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 100 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Democracy and liberalism can be decoupled and even opposed
#corroborates(0.95) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 235 - Economic liberalism defines the political, collapsing the distinction between them
#contradicts(0.90) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 100 - Interwar British liberalism re-founded itself on economics rather than politics
#exemplifies(0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 395 - Crises of liberalism are not deducible from crises of capitalism.
#corroborates(0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 492