State transformation in Italy and France: Technocratic versus political leadership on the road from non-liberalism to neo-liberalism

Gualmini, Elisabetta; Schmidt, Vivien A.

doi:10.1017/cbo9781139857086.016

Cited by 23 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…105 106 Escaping neoliberalism was about envisaging a situation in which breakdowns and internal contradictions stretched neoliberalism beyond breaking point; 107 one in which key ideals might mix, hybridize and morph with statist or social democratic ideology. 108 Equally, gaps between rhetoric and reality might widen to such an extent that neoliberalism would become irrelevant to policy debates. 109 Possibly, rival ideas might gather consensus: neoliberalism might give way to a Giddens-like revival of social democracy, under which narratives of austerity and deficit reduction would yield to notions of community and collective responsibility, and to stakeholder as opposed to shareholder models of governance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The pathway out of neoliberalism and the analysis of political ideology in the post-crisis world

Wright

2015

Journal of Political Ideologies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Neoliberalism has not simply 'survived'; it has failed to die, seemingly outlived the socioeconomic conditions that gave rise to its existence. In this way, the non-death of neoliberalism raises some important questions about the nature of ideology, principally: its relationship to socio-economic determinants; how it exercises its grip over subjects and how this grip, or hold, can itself be exorcised. Seeking insights into these questions, this paper tells the story of the scholarly response to the non-death of neoliberalism over a ten year period of crisis: a pre-crisis era beginning with the Asian financial crisis (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)) and a post-crisis era beginning with the global financial crisis to the present day (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015). The paper considers key scholarly responses to the persistence of neoliberalism at three fundamental levels: (a) the trajectory of their analytical technique, or the key concepts that underpin their wider project; (b) their critique of neoliberalism, or how these concepts render the construction of core neoliberal ideals; and, (c) their ideological response to neoliberalism, or their recommendations regarding the pathway out of neoliberalism. On this basis, the paper engages in a discussion of the most plausible explanation for the non-death of neoliberalism and the most likely avenue along which the post-crisis world might build an escape. words 2 The Pathway out of Neoliberalism and the Analysis of PoliticalIdeology in the Post-Crisis World The Non-death of NeoliberalismRocking pluralist notions of collectivism and the public interest, neoliberalism emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s trumpeting its core notions of competitive markets and a limited state as the solution to the nagging problems of unemployment, inflation and the lack of economic growth. In the decades that followed, neoliberalism reoriented key policy sectors in national economies across the North Atlantic and the Asia Pacific from health and education, to banking and finance, to trade and international relations. In the first decade of the new millennium, however, a liquidity shortfall in the US mortgage market precipitated a crisis that only state intervention prevented from becoming a catastrophic melt-down of the entire global financial system. At the height of the crisis, former agents of neoliberalism demanded decisive state intervention in the very governance regimes in which they had supplanted state authority, assumed self-regulatory functions and pressed consistently for still greater autonomy and market based freedoms. As the crisis unfolded, states demonstrated the centrality of their capacities for redistributive politics and shaping social compromises to the smooth functioning of the global economy. They seized control of troubled banks and investment houses. They printed and spent vast sums of public money to provide stimulus to faltering national economies. They bailed-out failing private enterprises, pro...

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The pathway out of neoliberalism and the analysis of political ideology in the post-crisis world

Wright

2015

Journal of Political Ideologies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This conceptualisation is also particularly apt to take into account the specificities of neoliberalising trends arising outside the ‘Anglo-American centre of gravity’ prevailing in the literature on neoliberalism (Bruff and Tansel, 2019: 235). This is the case of Italy, whose political-economic features are seldom portrayed as fitting the Anglo-American neoliberal canon and where neoliberalising tendencies, even when acknowledged, are considered at best as expressions of a ‘statist liberalism’ that ‘violates’ proper neoliberal tenets (Gualmini and Schmidt, 2013: 370). Conventional understandings of neoliberalism as a static and monolithic paradigm would thus be unable to account for the peculiar neoliberalising dynamics arising in contexts such as the Italian one, where, for instance, neoliberalisation was often driven by state technocracies (Gallo, 2021) and occurred in a ‘selective’ manner in order to circumvent and weaken trade union resistance (Ferragina and Arrigoni, 2021).…”

Section: Neoliberalisation Processes and The Far Rightmentioning

confidence: 99%

The rise of anti-establishment and far-right forces in Italy: Neoliberalisation in a new guise?

Monaco

2022

Competition & Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the last decade, the succession of financial crisis, neoliberal reform processes, and emergence of anti-establishment and far-right political forces has become a familiar pattern across Europe. But in few countries has it been as striking as in Italy. After the 2018 national elections, the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement (M5S) and the far-right League joined forces to form a government characterised by its rejection of past neoliberalising reforms and by its defiant stance towards European Union fiscal rules. The League’s victory in the latest European elections confirmed its ascendance and its centrality in the Italian political landscape. This article examines these developments in light of the recent trajectory of the Italian political economy and investigates whether the rise of these parties, and particularly the League, marked a break with the post-2011 neoliberalisation process. Analysis of the M5S-League government’s action indicates that these forces can further neoliberalisation processes together with a mix of anti-migration and welfare chauvinist measures. Moreover, an investigation of the political-economic project of the League shows that far-right parties can advance ‘nation-based’ neoliberalisation processes.

show abstract

“…This expectation reflects the dialogical nature of policy ideas, which means that ‘each of them exists only in opposition to other policy ideas’ (Béland, 2005: 9; Schmidt, 2002: 171). The Norwegian case indeed shows such a tension between two well-known ideologies in the Nordic welfare policy and political landscape: the market-sceptical ideas stressing active market regulation and the liberal idea of markets stressing free-market competition, no discrimination and no preferential treatment of market actors (Gualmini and Schmidt, 2013). Moreover, this ideological tension reflects one of the historical cleavages in Norwegian politics (Lipset and Rokkan, 1967)—the owner-worker cleavage—which may lead to normative discussions in Parliament and the media, rather than only policy-focused debates.…”

Section: The Norwegian Context the Ideational Outset And Expectationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political changemakers in Norway: The strategies and political ideas of welfare providers

Segaard

2022

Acta Sociologica

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article contributes to the knowledge of interest groups’ political power. It examines how interest groups shape political debates and decision-making, and what strategies are most successful to this end, through an in-depth case study analysis of the Norwegian transposition of the revised EU policy on public procurement. The case is unique as it illustrates a policy process that changed direction at the eleventh hour, embodies an ideational fight between different views of a good society, and—surprisingly—concludes in favour of non-profit interests. Based on hearing statements, media items, transcripts from the final parliamentary debate on the matter, and interviews with leaders of interest groups, the article demonstrates that the ability to coordinate action and frame and control the public and political debate was a vital power resource for non-profit interests, who did so using a broad range of both direct and indirect strategies. The political ideas advanced through these two strategies were nearly identical; however, the indirect strategy was more personified and strongly emphasised normative conflict.

show abstract

State transformation in Italy and France: Technocratic versus political leadership on the road from non-liberalism to neo-liberalism

Cited by 23 publications

References 21 publications

The pathway out of neoliberalism and the analysis of political ideology in the post-crisis world

The pathway out of neoliberalism and the analysis of political ideology in the post-crisis world

The rise of anti-establishment and far-right forces in Italy: Neoliberalisation in a new guise?

Political changemakers in Norway: The strategies and political ideas of welfare providers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About