The Guardians of Capitalism: International Consensus and the Technocratic Implementation of Austerity

Abstract

Current debates on austerity often forget that these policies are almost a hundred years old. This article explores how the combination of austerity and technocracy acted as a powerful tool to secure the compliance of European countries with socio‐economic stabilization after the First World War. Austerity emerged as an economic, moral, and technocratic message as economic experts sought to educate restless post‐war civil society. The article analyses primary austerity documents from the international economic conferences of Brussels (1920) and Genoa (1922). In addition, I use a case study of Italy (1922–1925) to show how austerity succeeded under the first years of Fascism, when the government authorized prominent economics professors to implement the international financial codes devised at Brussels and Genoa. I also consider the scientific writings of De Stefani, Ricci, and Pantaleoni in order to examine the theoretical roots of the technocratic nature of austerity.

A retórica da austeridade

“…Os debates atuais sobre austeridade fiscal frequentemente se esquecem de que essas políticas já foram pautadas há quase cem anos (Mattei, 2017a). Foi em resposta a políticas fiscais expansionistas, que buscavam atender às novas demandas por seguridade social e benefícios públicos promovidas pelos sindicatos, e em meio a dificuldades econômicas do pós-Primeira Guerra Mundial -em particular, a inflação -, que ocorreram as conferências de Bruxelas (24 de setembro-4 de outubro de 1920) e Gênova (10 de abril-19 de maio de 1922).…”

“…Sobre essa questão, se espelham na posição de John Maynard Keynes, em The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919), acerca das reparações incumbidas à Alemanha no período pós-Primeira Guerra Mundial, consideradas exageradas, sem justificativa moral e com possibilidades de graves repercussões políticas para o país e o restante da Europa. A história desenhou-se conforme o previsto por Keynes e a posição irredutível dos Aliados em relação à Alemanha imediatamente após a Primeira Guerra até a década seguinte foi um dos principais fatores da ascensão do partido nazista ao poder no final da década de 1920, preparando o terreno para a Segunda Guerra Mundial, conforme destacam Nikiforos, Papadimitriou e Zezza (2015), que traçam um paralelo do ocorrido no Enormes quantias de poupança e capital foram perdidas; houve também uma mudança na distribuição de renda" (Mattei, 2017a). período entre as guerras com a ascensão vertiginosa do partido neonazista grego nas eleições presidenciais do país no ano de 2015.…”

Hidden Agency: Economists and Authoritarian Regimes in The 20th Century

“…On the other hand, historians have stressed the intrinsically authoritarian nature of the purportedly neutral rule by the expert. While the connection between communist regimes and top-down economic planning is obvious, fascist regimes and movements of the early 20th century are often associated with "technocracy" (for instance, Salsano 1993, Cabo, Prieto, Pan-Montojo 2014Mattei 2017b). Yet, the emphasis on 'technocracy' as an explanatory variable can obscure the variety of roles played by economists, and the contextual conditions of their action.…”

Book Review: Thinking Like an Economist: How Efficiency Replaced Equality in U.S. Public Policy

“…So too, Berman's latest work resonates with heterodox scholarship on technocratic policymaking and economic ideas, including political economist Clara Mattei's 2022 book, The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism. 1 Whereas Mattei (2017; primarily focuses on the "technocratic project of austerity" in Europe, Berman (2022) traces the solidification of the economic style of reasoning to the 1950s within contexts of disciplinary knowledge and diffusion at elite U.S. universities including Harvard, MIT, and Chicago. Additionally, the interdisciplinary RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, with its share of economists guided by systems analysis, was closely allied with academic elites and critical to this enterprise.…”