Neoliberalism reframed democracy and unions as enemies of market truth.

Evidence

As the old collectivist enemies had receded, new ones took their place: state regulation and oversight, social legislation and welfare policies, labor unions and the institutions of collective bargaining, and the principles of democratic politics. Indeed, all these were to be replaced by the market’s version of truth, and competition would be the solution to growth. The new aims would be achieved through supply-side reforms, including deregulation, privatization, and lower taxes. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 123

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes what century’s neoliberalism treats as its target enemies — the framing of regulation and democracy as obstacles to truth.
• XREF: connects to: Neoliberals diagnosed intellectual hostility to markets as resentment, utopianism, and ignorance. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 286; Neoliberal market discipline deliberately breaks political subjectivity and weakens solidarity. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 334; Unchecked market economies generate divergence that threatens democratic societies. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1642 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal union critique reframed labor organization as monopoly power backed by coercion. #corroborates (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 971
• Early neoliberals saw large unions as monopoly threats distorting wages #exemplifies (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 968
• Neoliberal ideas reframed anti-union business positions as good judgment rather than reactionary politics #expands (0.82) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1474
• Neoliberal deregulation erodes democracy as politics abdicates to market pressure #expands (0.80) — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 81
• Neoliberal economic rationality is extinguishing the domains through which democracy materializes. #expands (0.78)
• Neoliberals pathologised political struggle by framing the market as peaceful and politics as violent #expands (0.75) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 64