Lavery, S. (2018) The legitimation of post-crisis capitalism in the United Kingdom: real wage decline, finance-led growth and the state. New Political Economy, 23 (1). pp. 27-45. ISSN 1356-3467
Abstract
Since the 2008 financial crisis, capitalist development in the UK has been marked by both continuity and change. Whilst the Coalition government effectively re-established the UK's ‘finance-led’ growth model, it simultaneously broke with the legitimation strategy which New Labour had advanced in the pre-crisis conjuncture. The Coalition advanced a distinctive ‘two nations’ strategy which sought to secure a limited but durable base of support in a context of fiscal consolidation. This strategy was conditional upon the deep and unprecedented period of real wage decline which took hold in the post-crisis conjuncture. However, the Coalition successfully transformed this potential liability into a political asset, constructing a series of ‘moralised antagonisms’ between wage earners and welfare recipients, on the one hand, and private and public sector workers, on the other. Whilst this strategy secured a limited base of popular support, it also re-embedded a series of structural weaknesses within post-crisis UK capitalism. These imbalances are likely to undermine the stability of the UK’s finance-led growth model in the future and will condition British politics as the country embarks upon the process of leaving of the EU.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in New Political Economy on 09 May 2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13563467.2017.1321627. |
Keywords: | United Kingdom; the Coalition; crisis; welfare; public Sector; labour Market |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Politics and International Relations (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 17 May 2017 09:42 |
Last Modified: | 28 Jul 2023 14:22 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/13563467.2017.1321627 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:116362 |