Neoliberalism’s founding manifesto borrowed human-rights language to frame markets as civilization’s defense.

Evidence

The statement of aims of the neoliberal Mont Pèlerin Society (MPS) begins with a warning: the ‘central values of civilization are in danger’. In language that echoes that of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which was being drafted across the Atlantic at the same time, the 1947 statement signalling the consolidation of neoliberalism declared that the essential conditions of ‘human dignity and freedom’ had largely disappeared. … In a foreword to the 1956 American edition of The Road to Serfdom the Austrian economist explained that the book aimed to show that state economic controls and public monopolies could destroy the market economy and ‘gradually smother the creative powers of a free civilization’. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 69

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s study of how human-rights discourse and market ideology interpenetrate; also to Hayek’s Road to Serfdom framing and later work on the 1948 drafting moment. — connects to: Neoliberal thinkers reframed human rights as protections for market freedoms. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 56; Neoliberals weaponized human rights language to protect private property and market order — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 76; Neoliberals reframed human rights as instruments of market submission — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 120 (+8 more)
• DEFINE: Precisely dates and characterizes the consolidation of ‘neoliberalism’ as an organized statement (1947), useful for definitional grounding.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals crafted their own human rights account supporting market order. #corroborates (0.93) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 38
• Neoliberals weaponized human rights language to protect private property and market order #corroborates (0.92) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 76
• Early neoliberals championed human rights as instruments for market order, not as social protection #corroborates (0.90) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 76
• Neoliberals deployed human rights language to justify property rights and dismantling welfare #corroborates (0.90) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 7
• Neoliberals reframed human rights as instruments of market submission #corroborates (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 120
• Neoliberals actively shaped the postwar human rights discourse that later legitimized markets #expands (0.84) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 40
• Neoliberals judged human-rights claims by their conduciveness to markets #corroborates (0.82) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 27
• Market competition was framed by neoliberals as guarantor of rights and peace #expands (0.78)
• Neoliberal human rights legitimize state violence to protect global markets. #expands (0.75)