The heartlands of neoliberalism and the rise of the austerity state

Abstract

adopts a regulation- and state-theoretical variegated capitalism approach to the genealogy and subsequent development of neoliberalism. It distinguishes four kinds of neoliberal project: post-socialist system transformation, principled neoliberal regime shifts, pragmatic neoliberal policy adjustment, and neoliberal structural adjustment regimes. The heartlands of neoliberalism are characterized by principled neoliberal regime shifts, typified by the USA and UK but with variations in Canada, Eire, Australia, New Zealand, and Iceland. I consider the periodization of neoliberal regime shifts in the USA and UK and comment on similarities and differences with other cases. I then consider the extent to which pragmatic neoliberal policy adjustments can cumulate, over time, through ratchet-like effects, to produce de facto rather than principled neoliberal regime shifts. Here I also consider two cases – the Federal Republic of Germany, in which neoliberal policy adjustments serve a neo-mercantilist economic strategy but have consolidated into a more neoliberal regime shift, and Sweden, where a glass half-full, glass half-empty ambivalence exists as a result of the steady cumulation of neoliberal policy adjustments but much of the Swedish social democratic model has been retained. Finally, I consider the implications of neoliberal regime shifts in the heartlands in terms of (1) core-periphery relations within the heartlands themselves, associated with intensified uneven development and (2) the repercussions of neoliberal regime shifts in the heartlands for the overall dynamic of a world market organized in the shadow of neoliberalism.