Austerity: the 21st Century New Poor Law (original) (raw)

From resistance to hegemony: The struggle against austerity and the need for a new historical bloc

Austerity has been the main battle cry from the part of the forces of capital. New cuts in public spending, new cuts in pensions, new cuts in social expenditure, mass layoffs of public sector workers, all in the name of dealing with increased budget deficits and increased debt-burden. This was intensified after the eruption of the global capitalist crisis in 2007-8. All over the world, political and economic elites along with media pundits have been singling out public spending as the main obstacle to economic recovery. Deficit reductions have become the point of condensation of political conflicts and party rivalries. The call for budget cuts and deficit reductions has been accompanied by new calls for abolishing whatever has been left of labour rights. In all advanced capitalist societies, we can hear the same battle cry against the supposed 'rigidities' of the labour market and the 'privileges' enjoyed by public sector employees and certain segments of the workforce. Liberalizing markets and removing obstacles to entrepreneurial activity have been at the centre of political debates and policy discussions. The attempt to save the banking system has led to is an obvious difference in the extent of and scope of the attack in the US and European Union and in particular the countries of the Eurozone. In contrast to the incompletion of any attempt towards a 'welfare State' in the 20 th century in the US, along with the extent and depth of the attack against workers after the late 1970s, things were different in the European Union. In Europe, despite the effects of forced market liberalization, privatizations and labour market reforms, there were still some social gains and rights in place, which European capitalists regard as an obstacle to profitability. The country that seems to have suffered less during the period of the crisis, in terms of recession, Germany, is also the country that was the first to impose aggressive measures of austerity, real wage reductions and increased flexibility, in the first half of the 2000s, under social-democratic governments. 2 Moreover, we cannot think about contemporary austerity policies without reference to the particular conjuncture of the global capitalist crisis that erupted in the 2007-8.

Introduction : the politics of austerity in comparative perspective

2014

The introduction explores the politics and political economy of austerity in comparative perspective, setting out the context of current austerity policies and discourse in Europe. It places the specific exploration of the dynamics and particularities of French austerity politics under Hollande within a broader context of changes since the 1980s to democratic institutions and electoral practices, the politics of European integration and the conditions of complex economic interdependence resulting from processes of deregulation, liberalisation and globalisation. It establishes the rationale behind the focus of the articles in this special issue on, firstly, the link between popular approval of elected politicians, democratic legitimacy and austerity; secondly, the politics and dynamics of state reform processes at the national and subnational levels which are integral to delivering on austerity-oriented commitments to reduce public expenditure; and thirdly, on the increasingly asymme...

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.