Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism

The aftershocks of the economic crisis that began in 2008 still rock the world, and have been followed by a crisis in democratic governance. The gravity of the situation is matched by a general paucity of understanding as to precisely what is happening and how it started. In this new edition of a highly acclaimed book, Wolfgang Streeck revisits his recent arguments in the light of Brexit and the continued crisis of the EU. These developments are only the latest events in the long neoliberal transformation of postwar capitalism that began in the 1970s, a process that turned states away from tax toward debt as a source of revenue, and from that point into the ‘consolidation state’ of today. Central to this analysis is the changing relationship between capitalism and democracy—in Europe and elsewhere—and the advancing immunization of the former against the latter.Preface to the second edition Introduction: Crisis Theory, Then and Now 1 From Legitimation Crisis to Fiscal Crisis A new type of crisis Two surprises of crisis theory The other legitimation crisis and the end of the postwar peace The long turn: from postwar capitalism to neoliberalism Buying time 2 Neoliberal Reform: From Tax State to Debt State Financial crisis: a failure of democracy? Capitalism and democracy in the neoliberal revolution Excursus: capitalism and democracy Starving the beast! The crisis of the tax state From tax state to debt state Debt state and distribution The politics of the debt state Debt politics as international financial diplomacy 3 The Politics of the Consolidation State: Neoliberalism in Europe Integration and liberalization The European Union as a liberalization machine Institutional change: from Keynes to Hayek The consolidation state as a European multilevel regime Fiscal consolidation as a remodelling of the state Growth: back to the future Excursus on regional growth programmes On the strategic capacity of the European consolidation state Resistance within the international consolidation state 4 Looking Ahead What now? Capitalism or democracy The euro as a frivolous experiment Democracy in Euroland? In praise of devaluation For a European Bretton Woods Gaining time Notes Bibliography Inde