Leading neoliberals defended restricting political freedom to preserve economic freedom
Evidence
No other neoliberal defended apartheid in precisely the way Röpke did, and Röpke had resigned from the MPS by the time he made his strongest statements. Yet some other neoliberal thinkers distinguished between apartheid as a comprehensive system of racial segregation and the discrete matter of suffrage for the black population. They argued, as Machlup does in the epigraph to this chapter, that democracy might have to be restricted for certain peoples in order to preserve stability and prosperity. Restricting political freedom, as commonly understood, was necessary under some circumstances to preserve economic freedom. Prominent neoliberals, including Milton Friedman, John Davenport, and Shenfield himself, followed this logic by opposing universal suffrage in Southern Africa. — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 500
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the book’s core thesis that neoliberalism is a project to insulate markets from democracy — here the insulation is literal, restricting suffrage. — connects to: Political freedom is impossible without economic freedom — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 407; Neoliberals restrict freedom to negative freedom to shield market epistemology from scrutiny — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 169; Neoliberals saw economic rights as a path toward totalitarianism — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 163 (+11 more)
- SEED: Angle: ‘the libertarian defense of limiting democracy’ as a through-line from Southern Africa suffrage debates to modern technocratic governance.
Broader Connections
- Early European neoliberals privileged economic over political freedom
#corroborates(0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 188 - Neoliberals restrict freedom to negative freedom to shield market epistemology from scrutiny
#corroborates(0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 169 - Neoliberals saw economic rights as a path toward totalitarianism
#contradicts(0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 163 - Neoliberal ‘freedom’ is internally redefined to mean market autonomy, not political liberty
#corroborates(0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 166 - Neoliberal theorists openly argued liberty must be limited to be possessed
#corroborates(0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 119 - British neoliberalism inverted the traditional priority of political over economic freedom
#corroborates(0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 154 - Neoliberal freedom is recoded as negative liberty to protect market supremacy
#corroborates(0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2130 - Neoliberal theorists framed social and economic rights as a dangerous expansion of state power
#corroborates(0.70) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 388