Hayek’s frequent appeals to a “spontaneous order” often masked the fact that it was neoliberal theorists who were claiming the power to exercise the Schmittian “exception” (and hence constitute the sovereignty of the state) by defining things such as property rights, the extent of the franchise, constitutional provisions that limit citizen initiatives. As Scheuerman (1999, 216) writes about the comparison to Hayek, “For Carl Schmitt, the real question is who intervenes, and whose interests are to be served by intervention.”

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 2196