Humanitarian founders actively pioneered a distinctly neoliberal human rights discourse
Evidence
I have suggested that this assessment is, if anything, too modest: rather than being a symptom, the humanitarians who founded LSF explicitly mobilised the language of human rights in order to contest the vision of substantive equality that defined the Third Worldist project and the NIEO. They were not powerless companions of the rising neoliberals, but active, enthusiastic and influential fellow-travellers. Their special contribution was to pioneer a distinctly neoliberal human rights discourse, for which a competitive market order accompanied by a liberal institutional structure was truly the last utopia. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 439
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to mainstream narratives that treat humanitarianism as an alternative or resistance to neoliberalism, rather than its fellow-traveller. — connects to: Human-rights rhetoric actively helped legitimize deepening global inequality. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 381; Neoliberals actively shaped the postwar human rights discourse that later legitimized markets — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 40; Neoliberal human rights discourse entailed a duty to spread capitalism globally — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 283 (+3 more)
- DEFINE: Naming a specific historical construct: a ‘neoliberal human rights discourse’ that redefines human rights around competitive markets rather than substantive equality.
Broader Connections
- Neoliberals actively shaped the postwar human rights discourse that later legitimized markets
#corroborates(0.83) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 40 - Neoliberals framed human rights as a tool to enforce global standards protecting private capital
#corroborates(0.78) - Neoliberal human rights discourse entailed a duty to spread capitalism globally
#expands(0.76) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 283 - Human rights NGOs absorbed the neoliberal civil-society-versus-coercive-state dichotomy
#expands(0.75) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 60 - Modern human rights NGOs narrowed their agenda to civil liberties under neoliberal ascendancy
#expands(0.74) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 148