Book Review: Kerry-Anne Mendoza, Austerity: The Demolition of the Welfare State and the Rise of the Zombie Economy
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929917723838 |
| Author | Sebastian Möller |
| Date | 01 February 2018 |
| Published date | 01 February 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsBritain and Ireland |
book-review2017
Book Review – Britain and Ireland
Political Studies Review
2018, Vol. 16(1) NP86
Book Review
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
Austerity: The Demolition of the Welfare
happens on the ground when the welfare state
State and the Rise of the Zombie Economy
retreats. Giving austerity faces and names
by Kerry-Anne Mendoza. Oxford: New
makes quite a powerful story. However, the
Internationalist Publications, 2015. 191pp., £9.99
much needed analysis of cultural and discur-
(p/b), ISBN 9781780262468
sive underpinnings of neoliberalism, unfortu-
nately, abruptly stops and returns to the surface
‘Austerity is planned hunger, planned poverty
of individual misconduct of ‘corporate crimi-
and planned homelessness. It is the deliberate
nals’ (p. 112). In general, the book is much
destitution of the many, to benefit the few’
better on describing the repercussions of aus-
(p. 83). The book by Kerry-Anne Mendoza is a
terity than on analysing how change came
passionate pledge against the politics of auster-
about. The historical analysis is far less
ity that have unfolded in the UK since the finan-
nuanced than in other accounts of post-WW II
cial crisis. It consists of two parts. The first six
dynamics that stress the social compromise
chapters provide a detailed description of the
under Bretton Woods, which Mendoza
devastating ramifications of austerity in health
unconvincingly presents as starting point of
care, education and social security. The second
neoliberalism. This comes with a slight over-
part sets out to explore why and how the neolib-
glorification of pre-crisis public institutions
eral ideology prevailed. The author argues that
and of the ‘real economy’ as opposed to the
austerity enables redistribution from the poor to
‘zombie economy’ as well as with the prob-
the wealthy and from the public to the corporate
...
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