Uncertain states: The political construction of the small firm, the individualisation of risk and the financial crisis

Abstract

This paper argues that the emergence, assertion and failure of the financialisation regime was enabled by the political construction of the small firm. Key shifts in societal relations, the formulation of new agendas and the extension of new forms of political, economic and social rights were asserted by political elites through the instrument of the political construct of the small firm. The paper argues that this is because of the dominant specificity model that characterises the small firm, and demonstrates how the denaturing of the small firm has allowed political elites to assert invariant behaviours to resolve historically specific contradictions in capitalist accumulation. The argument is demonstrated through parliamentary debates and through the redefinition of individual risk as household risk through the 2002 Enterprise Act.