Neoliberals saw human rights standards as a way to depoliticize international economic relations
Evidence
By the time major states and international financial institutions had embraced the belief that only free markets could secure free people, and that human dignity was intimately tied to a market order that freed individuals from dependence, these had been neoliberal articles of faith for decades. Since the end of World War II, organised neoliberalism had been focused on promoting a world order in which morals and interests would reinforce each other. In human rights standards, they too saw a means to ‘depoliticise’ international economic relations, protecting the right to trade and securing the space in which individuals and corporations could pursue their interests unhindered. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 450
Categorization
- XREF: Directly engages the reader’s stated interest in market ethics and market/human-rights discourse; connects forward to recent critiques of using trade agreements and corporate rights to entrench market order. — connects to: Neoliberals sought enforceable capital flight rights that outstripped human rights protections. — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 481; Human rights discourse flourished alongside welfare-state retrenchment and anti-revolutionary politics — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 8; Neoliberals crafted their own human rights account supporting market order. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 38 (+28 more)