Review of Mark Blyth, Austerity: History of a Dangerous Idea (original) (raw)
Related papers
An introduction to Assessing Austerity
2016
Contributions in Political Economy which reflect on the history, theoretical justification, and the spatial and social implications of austerity policies. This remarkable range of articles explores the political economy of austerity policiesits intellectual origins and justifications, the politics and politicking surrounding austerity, and its uneven spatial and distributional implications. The Economics of Austerity: The Rise and Fall of Keynesian Konzelmann's (2014, this issue) paper sets the stage for understanding the evolution of ideas about economic austerity. After World War Two, when the welfare state was firmly in placeand its social and political popularity protected it from serious cut-backsausterity took a periodic macroeconomic form, designed to stabilise economic activity, protect employment, prevent inflation and avert financial crises. Steeply progressive tax regimes ensured that the cost of these measures was borne proportionately more by the better-off. As a result, during the decades that followed, egalitarianism and an extended period of economic growth delivered greater economic equality and unprecedented improvements in living standards. However, this social and economic progress was undermined, as Kalecki (1943) had predicted, by the failure to create social and political institutions capable of supporting continuously high levels of employment. State management of the economy was ultimately destabilized by the crisis-ridden 1970s, which also discredited worker-friendly legislation, trade union organisation and collective bargaining. The resulting counter-reaction to Keynesianism was led by neo-liberal theorists, who portrayed unemployment as a "natural" phenomenonmade worse by trade union activity, legally enforceable The theoretical justification for austerity was provided by Harvard economists, Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff; and this was seized upon by politicians wanting to reverse course. Reinhard and Rogoff's (2009) study of the long-term historical relationship between public debt and economic growth suggests that following a financial crisis, output and employment recover very slowly and that the average duration of debt overhang episodes is 23 years. This implies a substantial cumulative loss in output, raising concerns about the long-term negative consequences of high levels of public debt. From this, they conclude that in the current context, since growth is slower when public debt is high, austerity is required to reduce public debt-to-GDP ratios to growth-permitting levels. Their 2010 study goes further, identifying a public debt "threshold"-90 percent of GDPat which economic growth contracts.
Fighting austerity: why after 80 years the General Theory is still relevant today
Brazilian Keynesian Review, 2017
The guiding spirit of the Keynesian Revolution is that full employment is a goal which can be pursued not by following the free market rules, but by reshaping them by means of public intervention. This message was widely accepted for thirty years as from the end of the Second World War by all the advanced countries which actively engaged in full employment and welfare policies, and subsequently abandoned with the neo-liberal Restoration which saw the dogmas of individualism and deregulation prevailing. In reclaiming the topical importance of the General Theory, we should take into consideration the changed circumstances of today's world when compared to those of twenty-let alone eighty-years ago, although there are notable similarities between the Great Depression of the 1930s-Keynes's world-and our contemporary crisis. However, his prescription for a better society is still relevant: it lies in setting rules and limitations in the market arena, not letting individual self-interest prevail, and putting some governing bodies in charge of filling the gap when deficient aggregate demand occurs, so that the acquisition of material goods and the fruition of the enjoyments of life be not a privilege of the few but the conquest of civilization.
Austerity: An Economy of Words
Berghahn, 2018
This essay starts with a personal account of the near starvation of Europe after the Second World War. We called it rationing then. The memory of Britain's "finest hour" in standing alone against Germany for two years was harnessed to the idea of "shared sacrifice". The word "austerity" is Roman, a cousin of the Greek oikonomia (economy). Both expressed the interests of conservative land-holders in their millennial struggle against the power of money. Keynes fought this idea between the wars and the developmental states that flourished for 30 years after 1945 temporarily followed the opposite path of increasing popular spending power. Keynes provided a class analysis of who benefits and loses from inflation and deflation. The term "austerity" has been revived by the western regimes that succeeded the 1980 neoliberal counter-revolution against Keynesianism. This time the political power is based on money not land, but "national capitalism", with its origins in the 1860s, was always based on an alliance between capitalists and the traditional enforcers. Increasingly it seems that economy has become a smokescreen of misleading words. The essay examines the austerity programs implemented in Britain and Europe after the 2008 financial crash and asks if we can still excavate the power that lies behind the words. A coda is added in 2022 as the transition from national capitalism to a new era of war, revolution and economic collapse increases the stakes in this old struggle over ideas and politics. The age of austerity I don't think we called it austerity then. Its general name was rationing and it began during the war, when Britain imported much of its food across hostile seas. The Labour government of 1945-1951 had to justify rationing even though cargo ships were no longer being sunk by U-boats. The country was broke and sometimes the harvest failed. Sugar, eggs, bread, butter, meat, bacon, tea and potatoes were rationed for varying periods, along with non-food items like soap, petrol and clothes. Most milk was used to make cheese, known as 'Government Cheddar'. A delightful memoir of those times-84 Charing Cross Road (Helen Hanff, 1980)-recalls the excitement of receiving a food parcel from America or Australia. But foreign gift food parcels of 5lb or more were soon deducted from a family's rations in the name of equality.
Unanswered questions for the austerity theory
2019
Austerity in the UK has been proposed as the reason for a large increase in deaths. This paper exposes flaws in the austerity theory and poses a set of questions which need to be answered.
COMMENTARY Contradictions of austerity
The global economic and financial crisis has been marked by the following paradox. A much more severe depression than the global slump of 2008-09 was prevented by determined state intervention in the form of bank bailouts and fiscal stimuli. Yet this bout of apparently successful Keynesianism has been followed by a turn to fiscal austerity justified in terms reminiscent of the Treasury View against which Keynes relentlessly polemicised in the 1930s. This article explores the sources of this policy shift. Among the factors considered are the ideology of neoliberalism, the economic and political power of the banks, and the relative weight of finance in individual economies. The broader context of financialisation is also considered. The conclusion is reached that an oscillation between bouts of austerity and laxer policies encouraging the development of asset bubbles may be built into neoliberalism as an economic policy regime. The implication is that alternatives to austerity must embrace broad institutional transformation.
The political economics of austerity
Cambridge Journal of Economics, 2014
The first requirement for an understanding of contemporary economic and social life is a clear view of the relation between events and the ideas which interpret them. … Ideas are inherently conservative. They yield not to the attack of other ideas but … to the massive onslaught of circumstances with which they cannot contend'.
2012 'The Alchemy of Austerity' (with john Clarke)
Critical Social Policy. 32, 3: 299-319.
In this article, we examine the return of austerity as a global and national economic and political strategy. We consider debates about the economic viability of fiscal austerity and about its implications for the politics of welfare. We widen the focus of politics to explore the relationship between austerity and unrest, before turning to the social imaginaries through which austerity is being mobilised in the UK (the Big Economy, the Big Society and the Broken Society). We conclude with some reflections on rethinking the relationships the economy, politics and society through the idea of moral economies.
The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice, 2018
This book reveals in forensic detail the harms suffered by millions of people in the UK caused by austerity policies. But, be warned: it will make you very angry. Even if you are well informed, the depth and pervasive nature of austerity violence will shock. The hammer blows of robustly-evidenced chapter after chapter from academics and practitioners expose just how bleak and horrifying contemporary living is for many. The argument that 'austerity' is a political, not economic, choice gained controversial prominence in UK political debates from 2015 onwards. In the snap election in June 2017, the economic policies in the Labour Party manifesto, in contrast to the Conservative government's programme, rejected austerity measures. Despite predictions of seat loss, the shock result was that Labour gained 31 seats and the government majority was eliminated. It is timely, therefore, for an edited book that explores the impact of 'austerity' on the lived experiences of many voting citizens. The editors emphasise that the grim and costly consequences outlined 'will take years to be fully realised because of the time lag between the implementation of austerity policies and the way in which they impact' (p.24). These words are highly prescient when, barely a month after publication, the horrific fire at the defectively refurbished Grenfell Tower (El-Gingihy 2017) ensued, followed, in August 2017, by the final report of the United Nations on the 'human catastrophe' of government policies for disabled people in the UK (Lambert 2017). Chapters are clustered into four sections: Deadly Welfare; Poverty Amplification; State Regulation; and State Control. However, other cross-cutting themes, such as criminal justice, are evident. In Section Four, for example, two chapters examine the prison service. Mansfield and Cooper show how women are being affected by the ubiquitous austerity policies of privatisation and the sale of capital assets. In this instance, it is the privatisation of the probation service and closure of Holloway women's prison to sell the land for private development that are 'generating harmful, and in some cases deadly, impacts' (p.188). Sim details the shocking rise in violence for both prisoners and staff since 2011. However, he also argues strongly that 'austerity' has simply amplified 'the brutalising nature of prison regimes' (p.200) that contribute little 'to reducing recidivism or ensuring public protection' (p.200). The failure to protect the public emerges sharply in Sections Two and Three. Austerity policies have left many migrants, people of colour, and homeless people, unprotected from increased interpersonal violence towards them. Holder shows how 'Brexit' has triggered a rise in anti-migrant racism and attacks in Northern Ireland that are creating a 'new lease of life for paramilitarism' (p.129). McCulloch exposes not only the huge rise in rough sleeping triggered by austerity measures, but also that 'people sleeping rough are almost 13 times more likely to experience violence than the general population' (p.171). Furthermore, peaceful demonstrations have triggered the abuse of legislative powers by State representatives towards citizens. Jackson, Monk and Gilmore give examples of police misconduct towards fracking protestors, while Paton and Cooper show how legislation has strengthened the power of bailiffs and enforcement companies. This 278
| FOREWORD : BEYOND AUSTERITY Foreword : Beyond Austerity
2013
Before the crisis there were different growth models in Europe: property bubbles in Spain and Ireland, state spending in Greece, hypertrophied financial sectors in the United Kingdom and Cyprus. All of these were based on growing, mostly private debt. They caused large current account deficits, and imploded in the financial crisis. State-led bank rescues to stabilise the financial sector massively increased state debt.