Friedman valued market freedom over political democracy and saw the market as eliminating coercion.

Evidence

Although Letelier recognised this aspect of Friedman’s argument, he argued that, in Chile, ‘when the economic theories he advocates coincide with an absolute restriction of every type of democratic freedom’, Friedman had instead disentangled economics and politics. In rendering Friedman’s argument, Letelier, perhaps unconsciously, distorted it. The central argument of Capitalism and Freedom is not that economic liberalism is necessary for political democracy, but that it is necessary for political freedom – defined as the absence of coercion by one’s ‘fellow men’. Although it seems obvious that Pinochet’s torturous regime fundamentally violated this condition, the coercion that most concerned Friedman took the form of political interference with the market. By ‘removing the organization of economic activity from the control of political authority’, he argued, ‘the market eliminates the source of coercive power’. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 326

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader market-ethics debate and to Mises’s account of market sovereignty invoked in the same passage. — connects to: Friedman held individual market exit could substitute for political regulation of war products — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 478; Friedman saw market expansion as reducing the need for political deliberation — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 794; Capitalist economic choice was coercive, not genuinely free. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 100 (+4 more)
• SEED: Material for an essay on how market-liberal doctrine redefines ‘freedom’ as absence of state coercion, thereby rendering authoritarian regimes technically compatible with freedom.

Broader Connections

• Friedman saw market expansion as reducing the need for political deliberation #expands (0.90) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 794
• Capitalist economic choice was coercive, not genuinely free. #contradicts (0.85) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 100
• Political freedom is impossible without economic freedom #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 407
• Neoliberal freedom amounts to submission to market sovereignty enforced by price fluctuations #complicates (0.80)
• Chicago neoliberalism recoded freedom so no economic transaction could count as coercive #complicates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 777
• Market ideology functions to repress freedom rather than secure it #contradicts (0.80) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 600