Neoliberal ‘economic rights’ protect capital’s market freedom, not welfare entitlements.

Evidence

The treatment of abuses of civil rights on the same plane as the licensing of economic activity or the establishment of state monopolies reflected the refusal of the neoliberals to view the economy as a separate sphere, distinct from the political. Rather than an economy inhabited by egoistic ‘man’ and a political sphere inhabited by abstract citizens, the neoliberals argued that economic control was ‘not merely control of a sector of human life which can be separated from the rest, it is the control of the means for all our ends’. Securing freedom therefore required the shaping of a competitive market and the use of rights to protect the sphere of individual’s means from political intervention. In contrast to the common argument that the entrenchment of neoliberalism saw the decline of ‘social and economic rights’, neoliberals had their own distinctive account of ‘economic rights’. These were not the rights to food, clothing, housing and education enshrined in the UDHR, which sought to offer some protection from market forces. On the contrary, neoliberal ‘economic rights’ sought to protect the market freedom of private capital. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 430

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes two incompatible meanings of ‘economic rights’: UDHR welfare rights vs. neoliberal market-freedom rights.
• XREF: Connects to Foucault’s lectures on the birth of biopolitics and the neoclassical refusal to separate economy from politics. — connects to: Technocrats define economic freedom as the protection of savers, not of the majority — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1586; Labor legislation once counted as core economic liberty, not socialist encroachment. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 391; The neoliberal state governs for the market, not because of it. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 111 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal human rights primarily preserve the market order rather than protect individuals #corroborates (0.92) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 45
• Neoliberal freedom is recoded as negative liberty to protect market supremacy #corroborates (0.90) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2130
• Neoliberalism redefined liberty as economic rather than political. #expands (0.90) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 380
• Neoliberal ‘freedom’ prioritized cross-border capital mobility over domestic welfare. #exemplifies (0.90) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 423
• Neoliberal ‘freedom’ is internally redefined to mean market autonomy, not political liberty #corroborates (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 166
• Neoliberals redeployed human rights to protect investors and property #exemplifies (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 428
• Neoliberals reinterpreted inalienable rights as instruments to foster economic initiative #corroborates (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 335
• Neoliberals held that rights originate from capitalism rather than nature #expands (0.80)
• Market competition was framed by neoliberals as guarantor of rights and peace #expands (0.75)
• Liberty and desire are capital’s own products, not its opposites. #expands (0.75) — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 460