Neoliberal competition is a constructed formal game, not a natural state.

Evidence

Competition is not the result of a natural interplay of appetites, instincts, behavior … the effects of competition are due only to the essence that characterizes and constitutes it … not to a pre-existing nature [but] to a formal privilege. Competition has an internal logic; it has its own structure. Its effects are only produced if this logic is respected. It is, as it were, a formal game between inequalities; it is not a natural game between individuals and behaviors. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 110

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the counterintuitive core of neoliberal doctrine: markets don’t emerge naturally but must be engineered.
• XREF: connects to: Competition is a discovery process requiring minimal rules, not an endpoint or structure. — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 705; Neoliberals are constructivist interventionists, not believers in natural markets. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 22; Competition is a governmental objective requiring an indefinitely active policy, never naturally given — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at…, 689 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism makes competition rather than exchange the essence of the market #corroborates (0.85) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 59
• Competition under capitalism is a functional necessity, not manufactured legitimation. #contradicts (0.85) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 611
• Neoliberalism distinguishes achievement competition from impediment competition where rivals block market access. #expands (0.85) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 899
• Neoliberalism endorses wide state action to construct markets, not laissez-faire. #expands (0.82) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 431
• Neoliberalism differs from laissez-faire liberalism by using state intervention to create competition #qualifies (0.80)
• Monopoly is the outcome, not the antithesis, of competition. #expands (0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 138
• Neoliberalism is activist constructivism, not laissez-faire passivity. #corroborates (0.78) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2125
• Neoliberalism is a novel doctrine in flux, not a return to laissez-faire #expands (0.75) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 439
• Neoliberalism activates the state for the economy rather than withdrawing it. #corroborates (0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 106