Selling citizenship rights follows logically from core neoliberal premises yet was mostly rejected

Evidence

97 There are exceptions to this generalization. For instance, the MPS member Gary Becker has proposed to solve illegal immigration by “selling” the rights to citizenship. This reduces state services to the ultimate commodity. It is significant that few other neoliberals have endorsed this complete dissolution of nationalist identity, although one could argue it follows logically from the other tenets of the program. What can nationality mean for a person without a stable identity? — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 1874

Categorization

• XREF: Becker’s commodification of citizenship connects to the broader marketization-of-everything literature (Sandel’s ‘What Money Can’t Buy’) and to the diamond-trade discussion of commodification in earlier reading. — connects to: Neoliberal citizenship permits being shed or sacrificed in austerity — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 141; Neoliberalism treats citizenship as customerhood and rejects the night-watchman state — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2129; Neoliberal logic treats even selling one’s own organs as protected self-determination — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 416 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal citizenship permits being shed or sacrificed in austerity #expands (0.82) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 141
• Neoliberal logic treats even selling one’s own organs as protected self-determination #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 416
• Neoliberalism redefines citizenship as mere customerhood to justify consolidating power within the state. #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 159
• Neoliberalism treats citizenship as customerhood and rejects the night-watchman state #expands (0.78) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2129
• Neoliberalism claims to liberate while actually eroding political sovereignty #expands (0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 211