The Illusion of Free Markets

Harcourt argues that the way we think about markets has distorted the way we think about criminal justice, to the detriment of both spheres. He calls to task the conceptualization of market exchange as “free” and “natural,” an idea he traces back to the 18th-century French Physiocrats, and finds reinforced in modern neoliberal theory. This “illusion” continues to contribute to the expansion of American penality, as those who bypass the natural order of the market system are subject to policing and punishment by a government whose primary purpose is to protect the unfettered operation of capitalism.