Neoliberals needed Chile’s dictatorship to find the means to depoliticize economies.

Evidence

Velasco was pessimistic about the possibility of reversing these trends. High popular expectations and the politicisation of economic life made it impossible to keep inflation under control. By 1958, Velasco had not countenanced what would be necessary to lower these expectations and depoliticise the economy. It would take another decade and a half before the neoliberals found their solution in Chile. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 301

Categorization

• SEED: Essay angle: the Mont Pèlerin inability to lower popular expectations peacefully — and the eventual reliance on Chilean authoritarianism — as the suppressed origin story of austerity.
• XREF: Connects to Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine and the broader literature on how authoritarian violence enabled neoliberal experiments. — connects to: Neoliberalism’s Freiburg-school origins were anticartel and then mutated in Chile — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 764; Neoliberalism in Chile outlasted dictatorship by adapting to democracy — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1614; Neoliberal reform in Chile depended on propaganda and a coercive military regime — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1585 (+11 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: A chilling causal thread: democratic politicization made inflation uncontrollable, so the depoliticizing cure ultimately required dictatorship.

Broader Connections

• Dictatorship solved the neoliberal problem of replacing popular sovereignty with market sovereignty #expands (0.88) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 330
• Neoliberal reform in Chile depended on propaganda and a coercive military regime #corroborates (0.82) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1585
• Neoliberalism in Chile outlasted dictatorship by adapting to democracy #complicates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1614
• Chilean neoliberals founded think tanks to preserve their influence after losing power #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1610
• Corporate Catholicism and neoliberalism reconciled in Chile around depoliticizing civil society. #expands (0.75) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 357
• Neoliberals invoked Carl Schmitt’s sovereignty doctrine to justify backing the Chilean coup #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2149
• Neoliberal reforms pushed states toward authoritarian repression to enforce unpopular policies #expands (0.75) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 452
• The CIA-backed coup installed Chicago-school austerity economists in Chile #exemplifies (0.73) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 356
• Neoliberalism required culturally transforming non-capitalist societies to extend markets #expands (0.72) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 88
• Neoliberalism pivoted from the economy to the framework encasing it #expands (0.72) — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 88