The return of the local state? Failing neoliberalism, remunicipalisation, and the role of the state in advanced capitalism

Abstract

Picking up on the manifestation of state intervention following the 2008 financial crisis, we argue that the recent trend towards remunicipalisation underlines but also problematises the thesis of new state capitalism. Remunicipalisation refers to a process whereby towns, cities and sub-national regions take previously privatised services and infrastructures back into public ownership. Remunicipalisation has led to the emergence of regionally- and municipally-owned state enterprises across a wide range of sectors including water, energy, waste, transport, education, (tele)communications, and health and social care. Engaging with the nature of the ‘new’ state capitalism, and particularly challenging its theoretically restrictive understanding of the state as ‘market enabler’, we highlight that remunicipalisations have often emerged in response to the failed promise of neoliberal capitalism to improve the quality and efficiency of public services through the (supposed) competitiveness of the free market. Like neoliberalism, remunicipalisations take spatially diverse and variegated forms as market-driven logics interact with other political and economic determinations. As such, remunicipalisations often encompass critiques of neoliberal governance and market volatility, and instead focus on the potential of regional wealth creation as well as stabilising local market dynamics through diversifying ownership forms. Drawing upon our ongoing empirical work on German remunicipalisation, we aim to foreground how multiple determinations at work in the German political economy at different spatial scales shape its particular trajectory out of neoliberal mutation. We show how the remunicipalisation of energy provider TEAG has enabled the local state to intervene and diversify the uneven economic geographies in the state of Thuringia.

Making space for the new state capitalism, part I: Working with a troublesome category

“…Attributes of antipathy toward state ownership, the accommodation of market failure, and hybridity in Irish governance are at issue in ‘Reluctant State Capitalism’ by Palcic et al (2023). For Paul and Cumbers (2023), ‘The Return of the Local State?’ is questioned in connection with failing neoliberalism and remunicipalization. Petry et al (2023) analyze emerging markets’ securities exchanges in ‘State Capitalism and Capital Markets’.…”

“…In many ways, these articles engage what might be considered to be standard topics in new state capitalism studies – including sovereignty, state-owned enterprises, China, inter-state rivalries in the global economy, crises and market intervention – but they do so by mobilizing some of the signature contributions of critical political economy and economic geography, such as theories of the state in capitalism (Alami and Dixon, 2023; Paul and Cumbers, 2023; Silverwood and Berry, 2023), the role of market failure in policy making (Palcic et al, 2023; Paul and Cumbers, 2023), and the scalar relations implicit in sovereignty claims and national state services for the global economy (Eagleton-Pierce, 2023; Silverwood and Berry, 2023; Zhang and Lan, 2023).…”

“…The papers of the theme issue equally highlight the temporal attributes of the new state capitalism by offering distinctive case-study periodizations, each with their own time frames (Palcic et al, 2023; Silverwood and Berry, 2023), by emphasizing extraterritorial dimensions (Jensen, 2023; McGregor and Coe, 2023) and by making connections with neoliberalization (Paul and Cumbers, 2023) and financialization (Petry et al, 2023; Ward et al, 2023). Rather than taking the ‘new’ state capitalism moniker for granted, the concept of novelty itself is also critically assessed (e.g., Alami and Dixon, 2023 on global capitalism; Eagleton-Pierce, 2023 on temporal fluidity; Su and Lim, 2023 on China).…”

“…Articles in this theme issue variously engage theories of the state in capitalism; however, rather than conceiving of the capitalist state canon as rivalrous, the contributors here call upon and combine a range of approaches in addressing the questions posed by new state capitalism studies. Variously centred on Jessop's strategic-relational approach (Paul and Cumbers, 2023; see also Jessop, 2002; Jessop and Morgan, 2022), Hart's relational-comparative approach (Meulbroek, 2023) and Schering's model of the accumulative state (Silverwood and Berry, 2023; see Scheiring, 2020), established theories are mobilized and blended in novel ways. The authors apply theoretical insights to the logics, drivers and features of contemporary state capitalism (Alami and Dixon, 2023; Palcic et al, 2023; Paul and Cumbers, 2023; Wood et al, 2023), histories and temporalities that complexify otherwise received periodizations (Alami and Dixon, 2023; Eagleton-Pierce, 2023; Palcic et al, 2023; Silverwood and Berry, 2023), and directly address the capitalist state in state capitalism (Alami and Dixon, 2023; Palcic et al, 2023; Su and Lim, 2023).…”

“…Variously centred on Jessop's strategic-relational approach (Paul and Cumbers, 2023; see also Jessop, 2002; Jessop and Morgan, 2022), Hart's relational-comparative approach (Meulbroek, 2023) and Schering's model of the accumulative state (Silverwood and Berry, 2023; see Scheiring, 2020), established theories are mobilized and blended in novel ways. The authors apply theoretical insights to the logics, drivers and features of contemporary state capitalism (Alami and Dixon, 2023; Palcic et al, 2023; Paul and Cumbers, 2023; Wood et al, 2023), histories and temporalities that complexify otherwise received periodizations (Alami and Dixon, 2023; Eagleton-Pierce, 2023; Palcic et al, 2023; Silverwood and Berry, 2023), and directly address the capitalist state in state capitalism (Alami and Dixon, 2023; Palcic et al, 2023; Su and Lim, 2023). Rather than positioning established political economy theories of the capitalist state in conflict or tension with the upstart literature on the new state capitalism, the papers in the theme issue push for new directions in theory and revised readings of the new state capitalism.…”