Neoliberalism redefines citizenship as mere customerhood to justify consolidating power within the state.

Evidence

Neoliberals seek to transcend the intolerable contradiction of democratic rejection of the neoliberal state by treating politics as if it were a market, and promoting an economic theory of “democracy.” In its most advanced manifestation, there is no separate content of the notion of citizenship other than as customer of state services. This supports the application of neoclassical economic models to previously political topics; but it also explains why the neoliberal movement must seek to consolidate political power by operating from within the state. The abstract “rule of law” is frequently conflated with or subordinated to conformity to the neoliberal vision of an ideal market. The “night watchman” version of the state is thus comprehensively repudiated: there is no separate sphere of the market, fenced off, as it were, from the sphere of civil society. Everything is fair game for marketization. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 159

Categorization

• QUESTION: How exactly does reducing citizens to customers translate into concrete political influence strategies? This mechanism (marketizing politics) seems central to the thought collective’s survival.
• XREF: Connects to the marketization-of-everything thesis in Saskia Sassen and to the reader’s interest in how the NTC operated from within states post-2008. — connects to: Selling citizenship rights follows logically from core neoliberal premises yet was mostly rejected — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 1874; Neoliberalism treats citizenship as customerhood and rejects the night-watchman state — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2129; Neoliberals coined and repurposed consumer sovereignty to rival national sovereignty — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 401 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism treats citizenship as customerhood and rejects the night-watchman state #corroborates (0.95) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2129
• Neoliberals coined and repurposed consumer sovereignty to rival national sovereignty #expands (0.85) — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 401
• Neoliberal citizenship permits being shed or sacrificed in austerity #exemplifies (0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 141
• Neoliberalism seeks to transform and take over the state, not shrink it #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 117
• Neoliberalism seeks to strengthen rather than shrink the state #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2128