The attempt to reduce the role of the state in the market through tax cuts, decreases in social spending, deregulation, and privatization - "neoliberalism" - took firm root in the United States under Ronald Reagan and in Britain under Margaret Thatcher. But why did neoliberal policies gain such prominence in these two countries and not in similarly industrialized Western countries such as France and Germany? A comparative-historical analysis of the development of neoliberal politics in these four countries, "The Politics of Free Markets" argues that neoliberalism was made possible in the United States and Britain not because the Left in these countries was too weak, but because it was in many respects too strong. At the time of the oil crisis in the 1970s, American and British tax policies were more progressive, their industrial policy more adversarial to business, and their welfare states more redistributive than those of France and West Germany. Monica Prasad shows that these adversarial structures created opportunities for politicians to find and mobilize dissatisfaction with the status quo. In France and West Germany, where tax structures were more regressive, industrial policy more pro-growth, and welfare states universal and even reverse-redistributive, neoliberalism could not be anchored in electoral dissatisfaction, and therefore it stalled.

About the Author
Monica Prasad is assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Northwestern University.

Reviews
"The Politics of Free Markets makes a substantial, original, and controversial contribution to discussions of neoliberalism, taxation, and welfare policies.... Here, Prasad argues that neoliberal policies... became more prevalent during the 1980s not because capitalists colluded with self-serving politicians but because political candidates discovered that with the appropriate spins many voters would support programs to reduce state economic intervention." - Charles Tilly, Columbia University"



Book Information
ISBN 9780226679020
Author Monica Prasad
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 510g
Dimensions(mm) 23mm * 16mm * 2mm