Strident demonization of some bugbear entity called "the government" is not at all the same as rejecting "The State" tout court. That is because mature neoliberalism is not at all enamored of the minimalist night-watchman state of the classical liberal tradition: its major distinguishing characteristic is instead a set of proposals and programs to infuse, take over, and transform the strong state, in order to impose the ideal form of society, which they conceive to be in pursuit of their very curious icon of pure freedom. I agree with Wendy Brown that neoliberalism became a "constructivist" project, no matter how much it was a term against which Hayek often railed. That neoliberalism turned out to be very nearly the polar opposite of libertarian anarchism is something that has taken a long while to sink in, but is now becoming widely accepted in circles concerned with political economy.

Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis …, loc. 117