Austerity

Suzanne J. Konzelmann is Reader in Management at Birkbeck, University of London

“Suzanne J. Konzelmann’s book is an incredibly valuable contribution to the growing backlash against austerity. The broad and rich historical and international perspective confirms that these pernicious policies have a track record of failure.”Geoff Tily, senior economist, Trades Union Congress“In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, austerity policies were imposed in many countries, with results ranging from disappointing to disastrous. Konzelmann shows how the logic of austerity was fundamentally undermined by the emergence of the welfare state in the twentieth century. Austerity policies threaten the automatic stabilizing effects of a large welfare state, and are therefore counterproductive.”John Quiggin, University of Queensland

• Chapter 1Introduction Chapter 2Shifting Responses to the Evolution of National Debt and the Economic Role of the State Chapter 3National Accounting and the Economics of Austerity Chapter 4Selling Austerity – Economics, Politics and Society Chapter 5Austerity and Welfare – An Unstable Mixture: Britain, Germany & the United States between the Wars Chapter 6Austerity (and Stimulus) in Post-war Chile, America, Ireland and Japan Chapter Some have Austerity thrust upon them, Others Embrace it: Ireland, Greece and the United Kingdom after the 2008 crisis Chapter 8Post-2008 Variations on Austerity: Iceland and the United States Chapter 9Austerity’s political economic, ideological and socio-cultural dimensions Chapter 10Conclusions Notes References