Neoliberals are constructivist interventionists, not believers in natural markets.

Evidence

By definition, theories that postulate free or pure markets per se are not neoliberal, and it is easy for neoliberals to point to the need for the right set of institutions, politics, and nowadays even behavior to allow markets to operate relatively freely, and, more importantly, to set market forces free. The charge of “one size fits all” fails in the face of the documentable shifts in neoliberal approaches to policy problems. Our case studies show that neoliberalism is less a policy orthodoxy than a consistent approach to policy problems. To adapt the famous legal maxim of Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, neoliberals hold that the market lives by prerequisites it cannot guarantee itself. Rather than operate with a belief in the “magic” of a putatively “natural” market, neoliberals are avowed interventionists of their own kind, rethinking policies according to context and showing both a capacity for improvisation and an attitude of flexible response. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 22

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the essential distinguishing feature of genuine neoliberal thought against its critics’ caricature: constructive design of market frameworks.
• XREF: The Böckenförde maxim adaptation (‘the market lives by prerequisites it cannot guarantee itself’) parallels the state/market mixing arguments in the Milgrom-Roberts and Ordoliberal tradition. — connects to: Neoliberals do not practice the laissez-faire they preach to the public.; Neoliberalism is activist constructivism, not laissez-faire passivity. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2125; The neoliberal state governs for the market, not because of it. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 111 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism is activist constructivism, not laissez-faire passivity. #corroborates (1.00) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2125
• Neoliberalism endorses wide state action to construct markets, not laissez-faire. #corroborates (0.95) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 431
• Neoliberals pursued an engineered order rather than expecting free markets to emerge naturally #corroborates (0.95) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1907
• Neoliberalism is a novel doctrine in flux, not a return to laissez-faire #corroborates (0.90) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 439
• The neoliberal state governs for the market, not because of it. #corroborates (0.85) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 111
• Neoliberal competition is a constructed formal game, not a natural state. #expands (0.85) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 110
• Libertarians distinguish their non-interventionist politics from neoliberal interventionism despite shared economics. #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2086