Neoliberal thinkers repeatedly countenanced dictators as the lesser evil

Evidence

Many critics have noted that the turn to an authoritarian solution always seems close at hand, with Hayek and Friedman’s visits to Augusto Pinochet’s Chile being exhibit A. Referring to Pinochet, Hayek said he would “prefer a liberal dictator to a demo­cratic government lacking liberalism” and that “it is pos­si­ble for a dictator to govern in a liberal way”—­while qualifying that this should be only a “temporary transitional arrangement.” Hayek’s statements recalled both Röpke’s discussion of “dictatorial democracy” in 1940 and Mises’s point in 1927 that Italian “fascism and similar movements aiming at the establishment of dictatorships are full of the best intentions and that their intervention has, for the moment, saved Eu­ro­pean civilization. The merit that Fascism has thereby won for itself ­will live on eternally in history.” 60 Following the logic of the lesser evil, the suppression of a disruptive force from the left periodically made support for dictators thinkable for some neoliberals. Mises wrote in 1922, “Our ­whole civilization rests on the fact that men have always succeeded in beating off the attack of the re-­distributors.” — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 905

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the controversial intellectual-history debate over Friedman and Hayek’s endorsement of Pinochet’s Chile — e.g. Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine treatment of Chicago Boys. — connects to: Neoliberalism’s weakening of democratic values enables neoconservative moralism and authoritarianism — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 169; Neoliberalism holds that totalitarianism results from mistaken beliefs, not inevitability — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 133; Bourgeois apathy sustains strongman dictatorships but hinders full totalitarianism — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 750 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Dictatorship solved the neoliberal problem of replacing popular sovereignty with market sovereignty #corroborates (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 330
• Neoliberal rationality reduces the very desire for democracy #expands (0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 398
• Ordoliberalism entailed an authoritarian skepticism toward democracy #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 557
• Neoliberalism’s weakening of democratic values enables neoconservative moralism and authoritarianism #expands (0.78) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 169
• Bourgeois apathy sustains strongman dictatorships but hinders full totalitarianism #corroborates (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 750
• Neoliberalism holds that totalitarianism results from mistaken beliefs, not inevitability #qualifies (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 133