Contesting 'actually existing' neoliberalism

The dominant conceptualisation of 'neoliberalism' is centred on 'free markets' and 'small states'. This understanding of neoliberalism - 'free-market neoliberalism' - is widespread, within both academic and popular circles. Steger and Roy's claim that 'neoliberals across the globe share a common belief in the power of 'self-regulating' free markets to create a better world' (2010: x) typifies this understanding. It is not only scholars that have characterised neoliberalism as a 'free-market' doctrine; so too have the ostensible political opponents of the neoliberal project (e.g Rudd, 2009; Swan, 2014; Aly, 2014). This article argues that this understanding of neoliberalism fails to accurately capture the realities of the contemporary political economy. At stake is a diagnosis of the weak critical power of challenges to neoliberalism that go after the wrong target, doing battle with versions of neoliberalism that bear an only tenuous relationship to the 'realities' of neoliberal policy agendas.