Neoliberal thinkers reframed human rights as protections for market freedoms.

Evidence

Throughout this book, I argue that the neoliberals of Mont Pèlerin reinvented human rights as the moral language of the competitive market. I show that they developed their own account of human rights as protections for the market order. This neoliberal vision of human rights was at its purest in the period of neoliberal ascendancy. It is clear in Margaret Thatcher’s simultaneous denial that ‘state services are an absolute right’ and championing of a ‘right to be unequal’, and in Ronald Reagan’s boastful statement, towards the end of his presidency, that ‘from Central America to East Asia, ideas like free markets and democratic reforms and human rights are taking hold’. It was taken up by the director of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Pascal Lamy, who declared exuberantly in 2010: ‘One could almost claim that trade is human rights in practice!’ Lamy argued that ‘human rights and trade rules, including WTO rules, are based on the same values: individual freedom and responsibility, non-discrimination, rule of law, and welfare through peaceful cooperation among individuals’. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 56

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s central debate on market ethics vs human-rights discourse; connects to the stated reading purpose. — connects to: Neoliberals reframed human rights as instruments of market submission — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 120; Neoliberals judged human-rights claims by their conduciveness to markets — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 27; Neoliberalism converged with human rights activism around shared political aims. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 36 (+14 more)
• SEED: Could anchor an essay on how ‘market human rights’ rhetoric was domesticated from Mont Pèlerin through the WTO.
• DEFINE: Defines the book’s core thesis that a specifically neoliberal account of human rights exists.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals weaponized human rights language to protect private property and market order #corroborates (0.92) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 76
• Neoliberals redeployed human rights to protect investors and property #corroborates (0.90) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 428
• Neoliberals crafted their own human rights account supporting market order. #corroborates (0.90) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 38
• Geneva School neoliberals co-opted human rights language to defend market freedoms #corroborates (0.88) — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 906
• Neoliberal human rights primarily preserve the market order rather than protect individuals #expands (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 45
• Neoliberals framed human rights as a tool to enforce global standards protecting private capital #corroborates (0.85)
• Neoliberals actively shaped the postwar human rights discourse that later legitimized markets #expands (0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 40
• Neoliberalism’s founding manifesto borrowed human-rights language to frame markets as civilization’s defense. #exemplifies (0.78) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 69
• Market competition was framed by neoliberals as guarantor of rights and peace #expands (0.75)
• Neoliberal freedom is recoded as negative liberty to protect market supremacy #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2130
• Neoliberal human rights legitimize state violence to protect global markets. #expands (0.72)