Crisis neoliberalism and regimes of permanent exception

Davidson, N. (2017) Crisis neoliberalism and regimes of permanent exception. Critical Sociology, 43(4-5), pp. 615-634. (doi: 10.1177/0896920516655386)

Abstract

Since the world system emerged in the mid-19th century, the stages of capitalist development have all been initiated by economic crises. But unlike the crises of 1873, 1929 or 1973, that of 2007 did not signal the end of the neoliberal stage, but rather its continuation in more extreme forms. This break in the previous pattern requires us to periodize neoliberalism itself and understand how the cumulative effect of the policies implemented during the ‘vanguard’ and ‘social’ periods prepared the way for the current ‘crisis’ period, by restricting the options available to political and state managerial representatives of capital. By reorganizing political economy in such a way that states respond to short-term demands by key sectors of capital rather than the needs of the system as a whole, neoliberalism has inadvertently undermined the accumulation process, producing permanent ‘states of exception’ as the only means of containing the resulting social crisis.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Davidson, Mr Neil
• Authors: Davidson, N.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences
• Journal Name: Critical Sociology
• Publisher: SAGE
• ISSN: 0896-9205
• ISSN (Online): 1569-1632
• Published Online: 04 August 2016
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 The Author(s)
• First Published: First published in Critical Sociology 43(4-5):615-634
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher