Neoliberals wanted international rules to discipline states, not just markets

Evidence

While states were necessary to enforce labour discipline and security, and create the conditions for market competition, they had to be shielded from the demands of their own people and prevented from interfering with the market. As Hayek put it, the ‘taming of the savage’ must be followed by the ‘taming of the state’. What was necessary was ‘a set of rules which define what a state may do, and an authority capable of enforcing these rules’. It was essential that the post-war period avoid a return to ‘unfettered sovereignty’ – especially in former colonies. Here, the neoliberals were broadly in agreement, but they were still grappling with the question of what those rules would look like, and how they would be enforced. They were nonetheless clear that the problem of securing a liberal economy was not a technical one, and that the new order would need to amount to more than economic rules. Mises contended that the preconditions of an international economy were ‘social, legal, constitutional and political’. Röpke stipulated that a truly international economic order must be based on ‘fundamental liberty and equality of rights’. Against economic autarky, the neoliberals sought to develop a moral order for all humanity. ‘No human cooperation and no lasting peace are conceivable’, Mises concluded, ‘if men put loyalty to any particular group above loyalty to humanity, moral law, and the principle of every individual’s moral responsibility and autonomy.’ — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 266

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that for Hayek, Mises, and Röpke the neoliberal project was a constitutional-legal-moral order constraining state sovereignty, not merely a set of economic techniques.
• XREF: Connects to broader literature on ordoliberalism and constitutional constraints on democracy (e.g. Wendy Brown’s ‘Undoing the Demos’ on de-democratization via constitutionalization). — connects to: Early neoliberals sought to radically shrink national sovereignty in service of free trade. — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 440; Neoliberal property rights justify imposing governance structures for foreign investors. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 51; Neoliberals wanted an international order forcing anti-inflationary policy onto states — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 425 (+11 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: does Mises’ ‘loyalty to humanity’ over group loyalty prefigure or conflict with the human-rights universalism the same era’s UDHR was codifying?

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals wanted an international order forcing anti-inflationary policy onto states #corroborates (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 425
• Neoliberals conditioned self-government on accepting market discipline #corroborates (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 297
• Neoliberals captured global financial institutions to discipline nation-states #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2131
• Hayekian neoliberalism requires active rule-design to insulate markets from politics #expands (0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 360
• Neoliberals pursued an engineered order rather than expecting free markets to emerge naturally #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1907
• The neoliberal state governs for the market, not because of it. #expands (0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 111
• Neoliberalism endorses wide state action to construct markets, not laissez-faire. #expands (0.75) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 431