Neoliberalism is an anti-democratic ideology. It takes decisions about the allocation of scarce resources out of the hands of public institutions and places them in the hands of private actors. Despite a distrust of democratic institutions immanent to neoliberalism, its reach within those same institutions reveals potent ideological lessons. Even the courts, ostensibly a bulwark against anti-democratic impulses, have incorporated neoliberal arguments into their rulings. As the courts have adopted neoliberal discourse they have reimagined society as a market populated by consumers. Accordingly, in this article we examine five Supreme Court rulings that illuminate how the publicly interested citizen is replaced by the self-interested consumer as the basic unit of democracy. We argue these rulings rhetorically predispose voters to think of social problems in the neoliberal language of privatization and profit through three themes: (1) elevating the market, (2) expanding the market, and (3) advertising the market. Broader implications are discussed including a more comprehensive explanation for how neoliberal judicial discourse has played a vital role in orienting the public to accept policies designed to concentrate public resources and decisions into the hands of private actors.

中文翻译：

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最高法院的新自由主义征服

新自由主义是一种反民主的意识形态。它决定是否从公共机构手中分配稀缺资源，并将其置于私人行为者手中。尽管对新自由主义所固有的民主机构不信任，但它在这些机构中的影响却揭示了有效的意识形态教训。甚至表面上是抵制反民主冲动的堡垒，法院也将新自由主义的论点纳入其裁决。随着法院采用新自由主义话语，他们将社会重新构想为消费者居住的市场。因此，在本文中，我们研究了最高法院的五项裁决，这些裁决阐明了如何将自利消费者作为民主的基本单位来取代具有公共利益的公民。我们认为这些裁决在措辞上使选民倾向于通过以下三个主题以新自由主义的私有化和赢利性语言来思考社会问题：（1）提升市场，（2）扩大市场，以及（3）为市场做广告。讨论了更广泛的含义，包括对新自由主义司法言论如何在引导公众接受旨在将公共资源和决策集中到私人行为者手中的政策方面起着至关重要的作用的更全面的解释。