John Pratt (2020) Law, Insecurity and Risk Control: Neo-Liberal Governance and the Populist Revolt. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan

Russell Hogg

doi:10.5204/ijcjsd.1956

Abstract

Reviewed by Russell Hogg

Highlights

Pratt’s thesis is that the hegemony of neoliberal governance, established after 1980 under the influence of political figures like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, meant that the solidaristic welfare statism of the immediate post-war world gave way to a new order
As John Gray (1993: quoted in Pratt p 143) observed, ‘The mobility demanded by a dynamic market economy is not reconciled with a settled common life
Special measures were required to protect against their disruption to the free circulation of commerce and consumption. This brings us to a centrepiece of the analysis: the appearance of the security sanction as a response to the dual character of risk under neoliberalism

Summary

Introduction

Pratt’s thesis is that the hegemony of neoliberal governance, established after 1980 under the influence of political figures like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, meant that the solidaristic welfare statism of the immediate post-war world gave way to a new order. In a reconfigured model of preventive criminal law, the security sanction is deployed to contain disruptive and disturbing sources of risk.

Results

Conclusion