Towards a Political Theory of Crisis: Policy and Resistance across Europe

Abstract

This article analyses the Great Recession in terms of a movement from a discourse of financial crisis to a crisis of sovereign debt to the current phase of the politics of austerity and cuts. It suggests that the unifying factor in the response of policy-makers to the crisis is the attempt to recompose class relations and tighten market-based constraints over labour power and money. The strategy represents a clear illustration of the “political use of crisis” to reaffirm the stark reality of the “cash nexus.” Selective state intervention to contain and prevent the “contagion” of the crisis has increasingly politicized the management of the economy and fueled debate about the nature of money, the character of the state, and the morality of capitalist social relations. This debate is being conducted by a growing number of resistance movements in Europe and threatens to turn an economic crisis into a political crisis of the state.

Notes

¹ BBC News, “US Congress Agrees Last-minute Budget Deal,” April 9, 2011, < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13022575>.

² BBC News, “Spending Review 2010,” October 20, 2010, < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11579979>.

³ HM Treasury, “Spending Review,” November 22, 2010, < http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/spend_index.htm>.

⁴ IMF, World Economic Outlook: Crisis and Recovery (Washington, DC: IMF, 2009); Ross McKibbon, “What Can Cameron Do?,” London Review of Books (2008), < http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n20/mcki01_.html>; Warwick Commission, The Warwick Commission on International Financial Reform (Coventry: University of Warwick, 2009).

⁵ Paul Mattick, Marx and Keynes (London: Merlin Press, 1969), p. 57; Marc Linder, Anti-Samuelson, Volume 1 (New York: Urizen, 1977).

⁶ IMF, Initial Lessons of the Crisis (Washington, DC: IMF, 2009), < http://www.imf.org/external/np/pp/eng/2009/020609.pdf>.

⁷ Simon Clarke, Keynesianism, Monetarism and the Crisis of the State (Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1988), p. 110.

⁸ Simon Clarke, Keynesianism, Monetarism and the Crisis of the State (Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1988), 216.

¹⁴ For details see, Simon Clarke, Marx's Theory of Crisis (London: Macmillan, 1994)

⁹ Karl Marx, Capital, Volume One (London: Penguin, 1976), p. 280.

¹⁰ Mattick, Marx and Keynes, p. 54.

¹¹ Mattick, Marx and Keynes, 56.

¹² For details see, Simon Clarke, Marx's Theory of Crisis (London: Macmillan, 1994), pp. 279–287.

¹³ For details see, Simon Clarke, Marx's Theory of Crisis (London: Macmillan, 1994), 4.

¹⁵ For an introduction see Clarke, Marx's Theory of Crisis; Suzanne de Brunhoff, The State, Capital and Economic Policy (London: Pluto, 1978); Clyde Barrow, Critical Theories of the State (Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin, 1993); Harry Cleaver, Reading Capital Politically (Brighton: Harvester, 1979); and David Harvey, The Enigma of Capital (London: Profile, 2010).

¹⁶ Toni Negri, Revolution Retrieved (London: Red Notes, 1988), p. 67.

¹⁷ John Holloway, “Zapata in Wall Street,” in Werner Bonefeld and Kosmos Psychopedis (eds), The Politics of Change (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2000), p. 181.

¹⁸ de Brunhoff, The State, Capital and Economic Policy, pp. 81–82, 92.

¹⁹ de Brunhoff, The State, Capital and Economic Policy, 81–82.

²⁰ Martin Kellaway, Public Sector Interventions in the Financial Crisis (London: Office for National Statistics, 2009).

²¹ For details see Margaret Reid, The Secondary Banking Crisis, 1973–1975 (London: Macmillan, 1982).

²² Karl Marx, Capital, Volume 3 (Middlesex: Penguin, 1981), p. 572.

²³ Clarke, Keynesianism, p. 107.

²⁴ Holloway, “Zapata in Wall Street,” p. 177.

²⁵ Werner Bonefeld, “Money, Equality and Exploitation,” in Werner Bonefeld and John Holloway (eds), Global Capital, National State and the Politics of Money (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1995), p. 194.

²⁶ Holloway, “Zapata in Wall Street,” p. 176.

²⁷ Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin, “Finance and American Empire,” in Leo Panitch and Martijn Konings (eds), American Empire and the Political Economy of Global Finance (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), p. 34.

²⁸ Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin, “Finance and American Empire,” in Leo Panitch and Martijn Konings (eds), American Empire and the Political Economy of Global Finance (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 36.

²⁹ Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin, “Finance and American Empire,” in Leo Panitch and Martijn Konings (eds), American Empire and the Political Economy of Global Finance (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)

³⁰ Marx, Capital, Volume 3, p. 572.

³¹ Holloway, “Zapata in Wall Street,” p. 179.

³² Bonefeld, “Money, Equality and Exploitation,” p. 195.

³³ IMF, World Economic Outlook: Crisis and Recovery, p. 2.

³⁴ IMF, World Economic Outlook: Crisis and Recovery, 4.

³⁵ IMF, World Economic Outlook: Crisis and Recovery, 8.

³⁶ IMF, World Economic Outlook: Crisis and Recovery, 9.

³⁷ IMF, World Economic Outlook: Crisis and Recovery, 41.

³⁸ IMF, “IMF Moves to Boost Resources to Combat Global Crisis,” IMF Survey Magazine, July 6, 2009, < http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2009/NEW070609A.htm>.

³⁹ Samuel Brittan's advice to governments during the crash of 1987, quoted in Werner Bonefeld, “Monetarism and Crisis,” in Werner Bonefeld and John Holloway (eds), Global Capital, National State and the Politics of Money (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1995), p. 56.

⁴⁰ John Merrington, “Introduction to Marx on Cycle and Crisis,” in Toni Negri, Revolution Retrieved (London: Red Notes, 1988), p. 44.

⁴¹ Negri, Revolution, p. 68.

⁴² Negri, Revolution, 75.

⁴³ Negri, Revolution, 77.

⁴⁴ Jurgen Habermas, Legitimation Crisis (Cambridge: Polity, 1988)—originally published in Frankfurt in 1973; also see, James O'Connor, The Fiscal Crisis of the State (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1973).

⁴⁵ Michael Moran, The Politics of Banking (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1984); Michael Moran, The British Regulatory State (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

⁴⁶ Peter Burnham, “New Labour and the Politics of Depoliticisation,” The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 3:2 (2001), pp. 127–149; Jim Buller and Matt Flinders, “The Domestic Origins of Depoliticisation in the Area of British Economic Policy,” British Journal of Politics and International Relations 7:4 (2005), pp. 526–543; Matt Flinders, Delegated Governance and the British State (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).

⁴⁷ Steven Kettell, The Political Economy of Exchange Rate Policy-Making (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004); Werner Bonefeld and Peter Burnham, “The Politics of Counter Inflationary Credibility in Britain 1990–1994,” Review of Radical Political Economics 30:1 (1998), pp. 32–52.

⁴⁸ Paul Johnson, Land Fit for Heroes: The Planning of British Reconstruction, 1916–1919 (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1968).

⁴⁹ Kettell, The Political Economy of Exchange, p. 5.

⁵⁰ Former Chancellor Nigel Lawson quoted in Wyn Grant, Economic Policy in Britain (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), p. 35.

⁵¹ Colin Hay, “Crisis and the Structural Transformation of the State,” British Journal of Politics and International Relations 1:3 (1999), pp. 317–344.

⁵² IMF, Shifting Gears: Tackling Challenges on the Road to Fiscal Adjustment (Washington, DC: IMF, 2011).

⁵³ Peter Griffiths and Keith Weir, “Osborne—Euro Zone Crisis Shows Debt Dangers for UK,” Reuters, April 7, 2011, < http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/04/07/uk-britain-economy-osborne-idUKTRE7362LO20110407>.

⁵⁴ See for example, Ronaldo Munck, Globalisation and Labour (London: Zed, 2002); Barry Gills (ed.), Globalisation and the Politics of Resistance (London: Palgrave, 2000); Christopher Chase-Dunn, Matheu Kaneshiro, Richard Niemeyer, Preeta Saxena, Roy Kwon, and James Love, “The New Global Left and Transnational Social Movements,” IROWS Working Paper 48 (Riverside, CA: Department of Sociology, University of California–Riverside, 2009).

⁵⁵ Andrew Gamble, The Spectre at the Feast (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), p. 160.

⁵⁶ Johann Hari, “Cameronomics Have Been Tried in Ireland—and the Result?,” The Independent, January 15, 2010, < http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-cameronomics-have-been-tried-in-ireland–and-the-result-1868347.html>.

⁵⁷ HM Treasury, Spending Review 2010 (London: HMSO, 2010), p. 5.

⁵⁸ Local Government Association, “Comprehensive Spending Review—Briefing,” October 2010, < http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/core/page.do?pageId = 14461844>.

⁵⁹ HM Treasury, Spending Review 2010, p. 32.

⁶³ Mervyn King quoted in Charles Moore, “Mervyn King Interview,” The Telegraph, March 4, 2011, < http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8362959/Mervyn-King-interview-We-prevented-a-Great-Depression…-but-people-have-the-right-to-be-angry.html>.

⁶⁰ Office for National Statistics, “2011—Statistical Bulletin: Public Sector Finances February 2011,” < http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/psf.pdf>.

⁶¹ Christopher Chantrill, “Time Series Chart of UK Public Spending—Public Net Debt,” UK Public Spending, < http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/downchart_ukgs.php?year = 1900_2011&chart = G0-total&units = p>.

⁶² Jill Treanor, “RBS Bankers Get 950 Million in Bonuses,” The Guardian, February 24, 2011, < http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/24/rbs-bankers-bonuses-despite-loss>.

⁶⁴ Sean Coughlan, “Students Face Tuition Fees Rising to 9000 Pounds,” BBC News, November 3, 2010, < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11677862>.

⁶⁵ Peter Allen, “France Braced For Riots on Day of Protest Against Nicolas Sarkozy,” The Telegraph, March 19, 2009, < http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/5015355/France-braced-for-riots-on-day-of-protests-against-Nicolas-Sarkozy.html>.

⁶⁶ Brian Love, “French Protests Intensify, Government Stands Firm,” Reuters, October 18, 2010, < http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/10/18/us-france-pensions-idUSTRE69E43320101018?pageNumber = 2>.

⁶⁷ Martin Shankleman, “Could the UK Have Strikes Like France?,” BBC News, October 21, 2010, < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11602824>.

⁶⁸ Costas Douzinas, “Greek Protests Show Democracy in Action,” The Guardian, February 7, 2011, < http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/07/greece-protest-democracy-government>.

⁶⁹ Costas Douzinas, “Greek Protests Show Democracy in Action,” The Guardian, February 7, 2011, < http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/07/greece-protest-democracy-government>; BBC News, “Royal Car Attacked in Protest After MPs' Fee Vote,” December 10, 2010, < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11954333>.

⁷⁰ Renee Maltezou and Dave Graham, “Europe Leaders Warn of Contagion, 3 Die in Greece,” Reuters, May 5, 2010, < http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/05/05/us-eurozone-idUSTRE6400PJ20100505>.

⁷¹ Helena Smith, “Greek Bailout: Athens Burns and Crisis Strikes at the Heart of the EU,” The Guardian, May 5, 2010, < http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/05/greek-bailout-economic-crisis-deaths>.

⁷² “Streets of Fire,” MailOnline, February 24, 2011, < http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1359891/Athens-riots-erupts-Greek-protesters-set-policemen-fire.html>; Tony Czuczka, “Merkel Says EU Weighing Extension of Greek Aid Program,” February 23, 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek, < http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-23/merkel-says-eu-weighing-extension-of-greek-aid-program.html>.

⁷⁷ UK Uncut, “Big Society Bail-In,” 2011, < http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/targets/banks>.

⁷³ For details about the purpose, activities, and ideology of UK Uncut see < http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/about/cuts>; on the Den Plirono movement see, Kevin Hope, “Greeks Adopt ‘Won't Pay’ Attitude,” Financial Times, March 9, 2011, < http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/84839398-4a6d-11e0-82ab-00144feab49a.html>; and < http://callingengland.blogspot.com/2011/06/den-plirono.html>.

⁷⁴ BBC News, “Anti-cuts March—Tens of Thousands at London Protest,” March 27, 2011, < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12864353>.

⁷⁵ US Uncut draws directly on the experience and structure of the UK organization see < http://www.usuncut.org/about>.

⁷⁶ UK Uncut, “The Government's Lies,” 2011, < http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/about/cuts>.

⁷⁸ For an extensive review of UK and international anti-cuts groups see, < http://www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk/links-2/>.

⁷⁹ Kellaway, Public Sector Interventions in the Financial Crisis, p. 8.

⁸⁰ Habermas, Legitimation Crisis, p. 46.

⁸¹ Habermas, Legitimation Crisis, 47.

⁸² Habermas, Legitimation Crisis, 74.

⁸³ Martijn Konings and Leo Panitch, “The Politics of Imperial Finance,” in Leo Panitch and Martijn Konings (eds), American Empire and the Political Economy of Global Finance (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), p. 243.

⁸⁴ Hilary Wainwright, Reclaim the State: Experiments in Popular Democracy (London: Verso, 2003), p. 196.

⁸⁵ I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for emphasizing this point. Also see, Gamble, Spectre at the Feast, chapter 6.

⁸⁶ Cleaver, Reading Capital Politically, p. 43.

⁸⁷ John Holloway, Crack Capitalism (London: Pluto Press, 2010), pp. 253–261.