Austerity: Neoliberal dreams come true?

Abstract

Please cite original, full and proofed article. AbstractThe 2008 global economic crisis paved the way for the construction of a new, elite-driven, capitalcentric, shrunken welfare state project founded on ideology disguised as pragmatism and objective 'truths'. Today, welfare states exist in a context in which a new politics of austerity sets the parameters of the debate. Austerity incorporates the neoliberal desire to shrink the (social welfare) state, deregulate labour markets and emphasise private markets as the drivers of growth, enabling a reconfiguration of the interests of capital, the needs of people and the role of the state. The new politics of austerity looks like a 'dream come true' for neoliberals. Or is it? There is also a powerful counter-narrative that suggests that the global crisis exposed the fundamental weaknesses and limitations of neoliberalism and forced policy makers to question core principles and change direction. Focusing on the International Monetary Fund (IMF), perhaps the preeminent global neoliberal interlocutor, and using quantitative textual analysis, the article locates some evidence of movement, but little to suggest that the fundamental assumptions of neoliberalism have been displaced.

Gritty citizens? Exploring the logic and limits of resilience in UK social policy during times of socio-material insecurity

“…This has underlined domestic vulnerability of livelihoods and communities to the highly financialised and disembedded nature of global markets, including the negative externalities that feed and flow from their volatility. On the other hand, post-crisis welfare politics has converged on a neoliberal approach to fiscal consolidation centred on cuts to public social expenditure, labour market de-regulation and an elevated role of private markets (Farnsworth and Irving, 2018). Within this context, resilience seems to demonstrate the limits of the nation stateÕs strategic imagination (and ostensible capacity) to respond to societal challenges through the existing logics and apparatus that Ôneo-austerityÕ permits (Farnsworth and Irving, 2018).…”

Legal Trajectories of Neoliberalism: Critical Inquiries on Law in Europe

“…The current international legal order, which has emerged since the end of the Second World War, embraces a kind of schism between international economic law and public international law, marking a bifurcation in international law along the lines of the putative division between the political and the economic. 1 This bifurcation appears to be rooted in the origins of the Westphalia System, with respect to which Arrighi remarks that "[t]his reorganization of political space in the interest of capital accumulation marks the birth not just of the modern inter-state system, but also of capitalism as world system". 2 Arrighi is far from being the only prominent commentator to have noticed that this division between the political and the economic is critical to the modern system of global capitalism.…”

“…The piece puts forward the argument that due to the textual limitations and the interpretive ethos of its interpreters, the legal opportunity structure of the European Court of Human Rights (understood as the nature of the available legal stock, the rules governing access to the judiciary) to address neoliberal state conduct has been very limited and continues to be so, despite attempts at legal advocacy before the European Court of Human Rights by various groups and individuals 1 . When cases arrive before the Court, the interpretive response of the ECtHR to forms of neoliberal state conduct has been marked by deference to domestic judiciaries and policy makers.…”

“…Thus, austerity can be seen to incorporate the neoliberal objective to shrink the social welfare state. 1 In this context, the following sections provide some reflections on national austerity measures and their impact on human rights, in particular social rights. 2 They are focused on the decisions of the European Committee of Social Rights (the monitoring body of the European Social Charter of the Council of Europe) on the impacts of austerity measures in Greece.…”

Neoliberalism and social work with children and families in the UK: On-going challenges and critical possibilities

“…Social work was drawn deeper into managerial, marketoriented ways of thinking and practising (Harris & White, 2009). Although the neoliberal project led to the 2007/08 financial crash and resulting Great Recession, it emerged remarkably unscathed, with subsequent governments implementing savage public expenditure cuts and attempts to "get more for less" under the banner of austerity (Farnsworth & Irving, 2018;McGimpsey, 2017). Such austerity policies are designed to continue the dismantling of the welfare state, bring down wages and fully marketise the economy, thus destroying all the post-war social and economic gains of ordinary people.…”