The Treaty of Rome became a supranational constitution enforcing market rules beyond democratic reach
Evidence
Thus, only in its elaboration by neoliberal constitutionalists in the 1960s did the EEC offer a realization of the double government dreamed of by Hayek since the 1930s. Mestmäcker, in particular, offered a crucial bridge between the ideas of the first generation of Geneva School neoliberals and thoroughgoing theories of multilevel governance—a link more often asserted than proven by scholars. What is crucial is that Mestmäcker went further. In the Treaty of Rome as self-executing constitution and the European Court of Justice as guardian, he pioneered a model of supranational governance that had not only liberal principles at its core but a mechanism of enforcement capable of evading contamination by democratic claims-making. — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 708
Categorization
- DEFINE: Clarifies the specific mechanism of the ‘neoliberal fix’ — a constitution plus judicial guardian that insulates markets from democratic claims-making.
- XREF: Connects to Hayek’s ‘double government’ idea from earlier chapters and the ‘insulate markets from democracy’ thesis that is the reader’s stated purpose. — connects to: The EU adopts market language to bypass member-state sovereignty constraints. — Ève Chiapello, Financialisation of Valuation, 106; European Community law gave market actors a supranational forum beyond their own state. — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 691; The ECJ was conceived as guardian of a treaty binding states against democratic interference. — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 707 (+6 more)
Broader Connections
- Ordoliberalism departed from classical liberalism by grounding markets in a constitutional framework
#corroborates(0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1087 - WTO design deliberately scaled European constitutionalism into a global trade constitution
#expands(0.80) — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 836 - Ordoliberals saw the economic constitution as imposed by deliberate political will from above
#corroborates(0.80) — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 697 - European Community law served as the model for scaling a supranational trade constitution globally
#expands(0.75) — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 834 - Dictatorship solved the neoliberal problem of replacing popular sovereignty with market sovereignty
#expands(0.75) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 330 - Rule of law in economics restricts the state to purely formal legislation
#expands(0.72) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 923