Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated: The persistence of neoliberalism in Britain

Bayliss, Kate; Fine, Ben; Robertson, Mary; Saad-Filho, Alfredo

Abstract

Recent declarations of the end of neoliberalism in the United Kingdom, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic, are underpinned by diffuse and unstructured understandings of the neoliberal state. We argue that state intervention is both necessary and unavoidable under neoliberalism. This article shows that the ‘market-based’ reforms and the ‘rollback of the state’ that overtly characterise neoliberalism are heavily reliant upon public policy and entail an ongoing role for state intervention both over time and across economic sectors. Using sectoral case studies of housing and water from within the United Kingdom, we demonstrate, through a tight analytical framing of both financialisation and commodification, the variegated though crucial role of the neoliberal state in restructuring provision to facilitate financialised accumulation and their transformations in response to the contradictions, dysfunctions and limitations of neoliberalised social reproduction.

Citation

Bayliss, K., Fine, B., Robertson, M., & Saad-Filho, A. (2024). Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated: The persistence of neoliberalism in Britain. European Journal of Social Theory, 27(4), 540-560. https://doi.org/10.1177/13684310241241800

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Apr 14, 2024
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2024
• Deposit Date: Apr 27, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 27, 2024
• Journal: European Journal of Social Theory
• Print ISSN: 1368-4310
• Electronic ISSN: 1461-7137
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 27
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 540-560
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13684310241241800
• Keywords: Financialisation, housing, neoliberalism, the state, water
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13684310241241800