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This edited volume explores and makes explicit the links between neoliberal economic policies and right-wing ideology. The book focuses on the case of the US while situating these trends in the global political economy.
The book brings together contributions from an interdisciplinary perspective, integrating economics, political science and sociology to examine the connections between the economic precarity generated by neoliberalism and the rise of the far right. The book argues that the creation of a flawed capitalist system has left a vacuum in policymakers' ability to understand the impact of economic policies on human welfare and mental health, and can be directly linked to a right-wing populist movement driven by the frustrations associated with the transition from an industrial to a post-industrial economy. Chapters consider the history of neoliberalism and comparative studies of socio-economic conditions, before tackling specific issues associated with neoliberal policy, such as the demise of unions, the decline in manufacturing jobs, the gig economy, trickle-down economics, income inequality and the rise of elites in America. This book will be of interest to a broad range of readers, including those in politics, economics, sociology, industrial organization and labour studies.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Policy Mistakes of Historical Proportions Destabilized the Political System and Lead to the Rise of Right-Wing Populist Movement, 1981-2016.- Chapter 2: The Decline of U.S. Manufacturing Employment since 1980.- Chapter 3: The Financial Crisis of 2008 and Estrangement from the System.- Chapter 4: Tax Policy and the Rise of Populism.- Chapter 5: What Went Wrong with the American Elites? Elites and The Rise of Right-wing Populism in the Neoliberal Era.- Chapter 6: Displaced Worker Angst and Far Right Populism.- Chapter 7: Coming of Age: Think Tanks and the Rise of Right-Wing Populism.- Chapter 8: The Urgent Need to Delegitimate Laissez-Faire Ideology.- Chapter 9: Understanding populism in the post-industrial society: the case of the European Union.- Chapter 10: The Political Economy of Viktor Orbán's Illiberal Democracy, 2010-2023.- Chapter 11: Economic populism in Four East-European countries: A Polanyian countermovement?.- Chapter 12: Left Behind in Saxony and Ohio: An Explorative Case Study of East and West between Transformation and Populism.
About the author
John Komlos is Professor Emeritus of Economics and of Economic History, University of Munich. He also taught as a visitor at Harvard, Duke University, University of North Carolina, as well as in Vienna and St. Gallen (Switzerland). His mentor was the Nobel-Prize winning economist Robert Fogel, who suggested that he study the impact of economic processes on human biology. Komlos devoted most of his academic career developing and expanding this research agenda, which culminated in his founding of the field of “Economics and Human Biology” with the journal of the same name in 2003. Through that research program he became a humanistic economist realizing that conventional economics does not reflect well the way the real economy functions. Since the financial crisis of 2008 he has been writing about current economic issues from a humanistic perspective. His textbook, Foundations of Real-World Economics (2rd edition, Routledge, 2019), advocates for a “Capitalism with a Human Face".
Summary
This edited volume explores and makes explicit the links between neoliberal economic policies and right-wing ideology. The book focuses on the case of the US while situating these trends in the global political economy.
The book brings together contributions from an interdisciplinary perspective, integrating economics, political science and sociology to examine the connections between the economic precarity generated by neoliberalism and the rise of the far right. The book argues that the creation of a flawed capitalist system has left a vacuum in policymakers’ ability to understand the impact of economic policies on human welfare and mental health, and can be directly linked to a right-wing populist movement driven by the frustrations associated with the transition from an industrial to a post-industrial economy. Chapters consider the history of neoliberalism and comparative studies of socio-economic conditions, before tackling specific issues associated with neoliberal policy, such as the demise of unions, the decline in manufacturing jobs, the gig economy, trickle-down economics, income inequality and the rise of elites in America. This book will be of interest to a broad range of readers, including those in politics, economics, sociology, industrial organization and labour studies.
