Neoliberals pathologised political struggle by framing the market as peaceful and politics as violent

Evidence

I argue that, in promoting a dichotomy between the market as a realm of mutually beneficial, free, peaceful exchange, and politics as violent, coercive and militaristic, the neoliberals sought to inculcate the morals of the market and pathologise those political struggles which threatened the assigned places of postcolonial societies in the international division of labour. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 64

Categorization

• DEFINE: Articulates the core market/politics dichotomy that structures the book’s argument.
• XREF: Connects to Marx’s critique of bourgeois political economy and to Polanyi’s double movement; also resonates with the reader’s work on human-rights discourse and market ethics. — connects to: Neoliberalism’s internal contradictions are displaced onto cultural theaters of cruelty — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 366; The crisis narrative blaming government interference absorbed leftwing grievances to defend market orthodoxy — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 496; Neoliberals diagnosed intellectual hostility to markets as resentment, utopianism, and ignorance. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 286 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals depicted markets as peaceful information processors and politics as violent friend-enemy coercion. #expands (0.95) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 403
• Market competition was framed by neoliberals as guarantor of rights and peace #corroborates (0.85)
• Human rights NGOs reinforced the neoliberal split between violent politics and peaceful markets #expands (0.80)
• Neoliberals argued political meddling, not markets, causes war #corroborates (0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 256
• Neoliberal market freedom required state violence to enforce submission to the market #complicates (0.75) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 328
• Neoliberalism resorts to violent enforcement when local socialities reject its order #complicates (0.70) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1887