Neoliberals lumped communism, fascism, and social democracy together as one collectivist totalitarianism.

Evidence

All this was laid out clearly in the MPS’s original statement of aims, which condemned central economic direction because it conflicts with the ‘right of each individual to plan his own life’. Like the preamble of the UDHR, the neoliberal statement stressed freedom of speech, thought and expression, and restraint of arbitrary power. Rejecting now-outdated nineteenth-century laissez-faire, it framed the competitive market as the product of an appropriate institutional framework and a rule of law. It also noted that the trends leading towards ‘totalitarianism’ were not confined to the economic realm but had also emerged in morality, philosophy and the interpretation of history. Conflating communism, fascism and social democracy, the neoliberals argued that all systems that organise social efforts towards a single goal ‘are 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, 71

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the precise way Mont Pèlerin neoliberals used ‘totalitarian’ — as a catch-all for any single-goal collectivist system, including social democracy.
• XREF: Connects to Hayek’s Road to Serfdom and the conflation of planning with totalitarianism; also echoes how critics link this to the reader’s austerity/neoliberalism work. — connects to: Neoliberals coined ‘totalitarianism’ to denounce any collectivist market intervention, not just terror states — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 153; Neoliberals characterized capitalism as peaceful and any economic politicization as totalitarian. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 434

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals coined ‘totalitarianism’ to denounce any collectivist market intervention, not just terror states #expands (0.92) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 153
• Neoliberals characterized capitalism as peaceful and any economic politicization as totalitarian. #expands (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 434