Neoliberals coined ‘totalitarianism’ to denounce any collectivist market intervention, not just terror states

Evidence

Today the word ‘totalitarianism’ evokes images of gulags and death camps. For the neoliberals who helped to pioneer the concept, its semantic sphere was much broader, encompassing all ‘collectivist’ interventions into the market order. ‘The common features of all collectivist systems’, Hayek wrote, ‘may be described, in a phrase ever-dear to socialists of all schools, as the deliberate organization of the labors of society for a definite social goal.’ The various collectivisms differed in the goals towards which they wished to direct society, he acknowledged; but they all differed from liberalism in refusing the supremacy of individual ends, and were therefore ‘totalitarian in the true sense of this new word which we have adopted to describe the unexpected but nevertheless inseparable manifestations of what in theory we call collectivism’. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 153

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the original, broader neoliberal semantic scope of ‘totalitarianism’ as encompassing all collectivist market interventions.
• SEED: Angle: how a word’s meaning narrowed over decades — ‘totalitarianism’ from broad anti-collectivist epithet to gulag-specific term — and what that narrowing concealed.
• XREF: connects to: Neoliberals tarred Third World redistribution schemes as totalitarian — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 427; Neoliberals characterized capitalism as peaceful and any economic politicization as totalitarian. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 434; Business opponents rhetorically equated the New Deal with totalitarianism — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1444 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals tarred Third World redistribution schemes as totalitarian #exemplifies (0.95) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 427
• Neoliberals characterized capitalism as peaceful and any economic politicization as totalitarian. #corroborates (0.95) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 434