Neoliberalism rejected laissez-faire’s faith that free trade naturally spread peace and harmony

Evidence

Although the neoliberals harked back to an earlier era of free trade, they also broke with the laissez-faire anti-imperialism of nineteenth-century liberalism and its assumption that free trade would naturally lead to harmony. Writing during World War II, Mises argued that, while earlier liberals had correctly recognised that there could be no conflicts between correctly understood interests, they had drastically overestimated the ability of the masses to understand their own interests. In typically aristocratic mode, he argued that liberalism had failed because ‘most men are too dull to follow complex chains of reasoning’. … Mises contended that the success of a liberal market relied on an institutional and legal order that would shape liberal subjects. ‘The essential feature of the advanced West was not its technique’, he wrote (in terms that resonated with Charles Malik’s arguments at Lake Success), ‘but its moral atmosphere’; a competitive market would thrive only in a society that encouraged saving, entrepreneurship, and peaceful competition. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 264

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the standard narrative that Hayek/neoliberalism demanded a specific institutional and moral order — echoes the reading purpose’s interest in how markets require non-market foundations; plausible link to neoliberal ‘ordo’ thinkers and to the broader debate on market ethics. — connects to: Neoliberalism rejects laissez-faire in favor of perpetual constructionist state intervention — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 148; Early neoliberals rejected laissez-faire and wanted strong state action; Early neoliberals explicitly distanced themselves from classical laissez-faire doctrine — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 117 (+3 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The Mises claim that a competitive market thrives only in a society already cultivating saving, entrepreneurship, and peaceful competition inverts the laissez-faire causal story — market outcomes are not natural but depend on prior moral formation, a dense point for market-ethics debates.

Broader Connections

• Early neoliberals explicitly distanced themselves from classical laissez-faire doctrine #corroborates (0.95) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 117
• Early neoliberalism emerged partly from a critique of laissez-faire and naturalist philosophies of history #corroborates (0.90) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 379
• Early neoliberals rejected laissez-faire and wanted strong state action #expands (0.82)
• The term ‘neoliberal’ was adopted deliberately to distance liberalism from pure laissez-faire #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 279