Neoliberalism requires active state intervention to build competitive order, unlike laissez-faire.

Evidence

I argue that human rights were not simply shaped by an underlying economic reality; they were a central component of the neoliberal attempt to inculcate the morals of the market. This does not mean that contemporary human rights are reducible to protections of private property and contract. Clearly, they are not. But, just as human rights are distinct from the rights of man, neoliberalism is not the classical liberalism of the nineteenth century, and it is not reducible to a defence of property and contract either. One of the clearest and most succinct descriptions of the distinctiveness of neoliberalism comes from a 1951 paper by Friedman entitled ‘Neo-Liberalism and its Prospects’. The ‘basic error’ of nineteenth-century liberalism, the young Chicago School economist argued, was to confine the role of the state to the maintenance of order and enforcement of contracts. Friedman framed neoliberalism as a reaction to this basic error: ‘Neoliberalism would accept the nineteenth-century liberal emphasis on the fundamental importance of the individual’, he wrote, ‘but it would substitute for the nineteenth-century goal of laissez-faire as a means to this end, the goal of the competitive order’. This entailed much more scope for state intervention to create the conditions for competition than nineteenth-century laissez-faire had countenanced. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 44

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharpens the key working distinction between laissez-faire and neoliberal competitive order, directly serving the reader’s need for precise conceptual definitions.
• XREF: Connects to the broader reader’s corpus on institutional design and state-market relations, e.g., the law-merchant and Champagne-fairs materials on how competition requires constructed legal order. — connects to: Neoliberalism differs from laissez-faire liberalism by using state intervention to create competition; Neoliberalism seeks to strengthen rather than shrink the state — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2128; Neoliberalism endorses wide state action to construct markets, not laissez-faire. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 431 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism differs from laissez-faire liberalism by using state intervention to create competition #corroborates (0.98)
• Neoliberalism endorses wide state action to construct markets, not laissez-faire. #corroborates (0.97) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 431
• Early neoliberals rejected laissez-faire and wanted strong state action #corroborates (0.97)
• Early neoliberalism rejected laissez-faire in favor of a state-built competitive order. #corroborates (0.95) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 365
• Neoliberalism activates the state for the economy rather than withdrawing it. #corroborates (0.94) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 106
• Neoliberalism centrally requires a strong state, not state retreat #corroborates (0.92) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 17
• Neoliberalism is an interventionist flexible policy approach, not a laissez-faire orthodoxy #corroborates (0.92) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 22
• Neoliberalism seeks to strengthen rather than shrink the state #expands (0.90) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2128
• Milton Friedman’s 1951 manifesto defined neoliberalism as a competitive order requiring an active state. #exemplifies (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1107
• Neoliberals saw that competitive markets require an actively constructed legal and moral framework. #expands (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 45
• Neoliberalism seeks to capture and reconstruct the strong state, not shrink it #corroborates (0.82) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 117
• Neoliberalism differs from laissez-faire by making competition its core principle #corroborates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 105
• Neoliberalism seeks a strong state that thwarts democracy, not a weak one #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 155
• Neoliberalism seeks to transform and take over the state, not shrink it #corroborates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 117