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The Market’s People: Milton Friedman and the Making of Neoliberal Populism

Neoliberalism has often been presented as a secretive project directed against democratic control and collective imaginaries. Following the path of Milton Friedman to notoriety in mass media and political campaigning and analysing his television series Free to Choose, this chapter argues that another thread of neoliberalism has often been hidden in plain sight: its engagements with mass publics. Following this thread leads us to a fuller picture of neoliberalism and helps explain its popular appeal and claims to democratic legitimacy. Free to Choose developed the populist imaginary of an elite enemy, “big government,” as contrasted with a collective—a people whose interests converge in an idealized market place. Taking this side of the neoliberal project seriously opens paths for understanding the current populist moment.