Why did the rise of human rights in the 1970s coincide with the institutionalisation of neoliberalism? And why has the neoliberal age also been the age of human rights? Drawing on detailed archival research on the parallel histories of human rights and neoliberalism, Jessica Whyte uncovers the place of human rights in neoliberal attempts to develop a moral framework for a market society.In the wake of World War Two, neoliberals saw demands for new rights to social welfare and self-determination as threats to 'civilisation'. Yet, rather than rejecting rights, they developed a distinctive account of human rights as tools to depoliticise civil society, protect private investments and shape liberal subjects. Honing in on neoliberal political thought, Whyte shows that the neoliberals developed a stark dichotomy between politics, conceived as conflictual, coercive and violent, and civil society, which they depicted as a realm of mutually-beneficial, voluntary, market relations between individual subjects of rights. In mobilising human rights to provide a moral language for a market society, neoliberals contributed far more than is often realised to today's politics of human rights.

人权和新自由主义的致命拥抱

为什么人权在1970年代的兴起与新自由主义的制度化相吻合？为什么新自由主义时代也是人权的时代？杰西卡-怀特通过对人权和新自由主义的平行历史的详细档案研究，揭示了人权在新自由主义为市场社会制定道德框架的尝试中的地位。然而，他们并没有拒绝权利，而是将人权发展成一种独特的说法，作为使公民社会非政治化、保护私人投资和塑造自由主义主体的工具。通过对新自由主义政治思想的研究，Whyte表明，新自由主义者在政治和公民社会之间形成了鲜明的对立，政治被认为是冲突的、强制的和暴力的，而公民社会则被他们描述为个人权利主体之间互利的、自愿的、市场关系的领域。在动员人权为市场社会提供道德语言的过程中，新自由主义者对今天的人权政治的贡献远远超过了人们通常所意识到的。