Still the Return of the State? Critical Issues and possible new Research Avenues

Resumen

En los últimos años, precisamente entre la crisis financiera mundial y la pandemia de Covid-19, el tema del “retorno del Estado” ha resurgido con frecuencia y bajo diferentes formas. Algunos autores, por ejemplo, hablan del regreso del “neoestatismo” sobre las ruinas de la ideología neoliberal (Gerbaudo, 2022), otros del “posneoliberalismo” (Cooper, 2021; Davies y Gane, 2021), mientras que instituciones internacionales como el Fondo Monetario Internacional han recomendado recientemente (es decir, en el periodo de la pandemia) una intervención a gran escala de las autoridades nacionales para hacer frente a los efectos de la pandemia. En este ensayo discutimos críticamente la cuestión del retorno del Estado evaluando los puntos fuertes y débiles de esta literatura. En particular, nos centramos en la necesidad de —en primer lugar— enmarcar teóricamente el Estado, y en particular el Estado neoliberal, y —en segundo lugar— fomentar una visión alternativa de la elaboración de políticas que tenga en cuenta la relativa autonomía de los poderes del Estado en la gestión del conflicto social al tiempo que se promueven los intereses de clase. En las conclusiones, al tiempo que se reafirma la centralidad del análisis del Estado, se discuten algunas posibles líneas de investigación
capaces de captar las continuidades y los cambios a nivel estatal.

Palabras clave:

Retorno del Estado Neoliberalismo Post-neoliberalismo Análisis político crítico

Citas

Altvater, E. (2009). Postneoliberalism or postcapitalism? The failure of neoliberalism in

the financial market crisis. Development Dialogue, 51(1), 73-88.

Amato, G. (2022). Bentornato Stato, ma. Bologna: Il Mulino

Amoretti, F., Cozzolino, A., & Giannone, D. (2021). Covid-19 Pandemic and the Fiscal

Strategy of the International Monetary Fund: Towards New Directions in the Global

Political Economy?. Partecipazione e conflitto, 14(1), 38-56.

Alvaredo, F., Chancel, L., Piketty, T., Saez, E., & Zucman, G. (2017). Global inequality dynamics:

New findings from WID. world. American Economic Review, 107(5), 404-09.

Bellofiore, R. (2013). ‘Two or three things I know about her’: Europe in the global crisis

and heterodox economics. Cambridge journal of economics, 37(3), 497-512.

Bonefeld, W. (2012). Freedom and the strong state: On German ordoliberalism. New

political economy, 17(5), 633-656.

Bonefeld, W. (2017). The strong state and the free economy. Lanham, MA: Rowman &

Littlefield.

Brand, U., Krams, M., Lenikus, V., & Schneider, E. (2022). Contours of historical-materialist

policy analysis. Critical Policy Studies, 16(3), 279-296.

Bruff, I. (2014). The rise of authoritarian neoliberalism. Rethinking marxism, 26(1), 113-

Bruno, V.A. (2018). The Production of Fear. European Democracies in the Age of Populisms

and Technocracies. Social Europe. Accessed on 3 November 2022. Link: https://

socialeurope.eu/the-production-of-fear-european-democracies-in-the-age-of-populisms-

and-technocracies.

Caterina, D. (2019). Historical materialist policy analysis meets critical discourse analysis

of practical argumentation: making sense of hegemony struggles in Italy’s crisis

management. In Mulderrig, J., Montessori, N. M., & Farrelly, M. (Eds), Critical Policy

Discourse Analysis, pp. 216-242. Northampton, Ma: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Cooper, M. (2021). The alt-right: Neoliberalism, libertarianism and the fascist temptation.

Theory, Culture & Society, 38(6), 29-50.

Cozzolino, A. (2021). Neoliberal Transformations of the Italian State. Understanding the

Roots of the Crises, Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield.

Davies, W., & Gane, N. (2021). Post-neoliberalism? An introduction. Theory, Culture &

Society, 38(6), 3-28.

De Tullio, M.F. (2020). Uguaglianza sostanziale e nuove forme della partecipazione politica.

Napoli: Editoriale Scientifica.

Ferrarese, M.R. (2017). Promesse mancate. Dove ci ha portato il capitalismo finanziario,

Bologna: Il Mulino.

Fischer, F., Torgerson, D., Durnová, A., & Orsini, M. (2015). Introduction to critical policy

studies. In Fischer, F., Torgerson, D., Durnová, A., & Orsini, M (Eds), Handbook

of critical policy studies (pp. 1-24). Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Gamble, A. (Ed.) (1994). The free economy and the strong state: The politics of Thatcherism.

London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Garrard, G. (2022). The Return of the State: And Why It Is Essential for Our Health,

Wealth and Happiness. New Haven, CO: Yale University Press.

Gerbaudo, P. (2021). The great recoil: Politics after populism and pandemic. Londra: Verso

Books.

Gerbaudo, P. (2022). Controllare e proteggere. Il ritorno dello Stato, Milano: Nottetempo.

Harvey, D. (2007). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hutter, S., & Kriesi, H. (2020). Politicizing Europe in times of crisis. In Zeitlin J., Nicoli

F., The European Union Beyond the Polycrisis? (pp. 34-55). New York: Routledge.

Jessop, B. (1990). State theory: Putting the capitalist state in its place. London: Wiley.

Jessop, B., & Sum, N. L. (2010). Cultural political economy: Logics of discovery, epistemic

fallacies, the complexity of emergence, and the potential of the cultural turn.

New Political Economy, 15(3), 445-451.

Lather, P. (2020). Updata: Post-Neoliberalism. Qualitative Inquiry, 26(7), 768-770.

Milanovic, B. (2016). Global inequality: A new approach for the age of globalization. Harvard,

MA: Harvard University Press.

Palano, D. (2019). The truth in a bubble the end of ‘audience democracy’ and the rise of

‘bubble democracy’. Soft Power, 6(2), 36-53.

Palano, D. (2020). Bubble democracy. La fine del pubblico e la nuova polarizzazione.

Brescia: Morcelliana.

Parsi, V.E. (2021). The Wrecking of the Liberal World Order London: Palgrave MacMillan.

Peck, J. (2001). Neoliberalizing states: thin policies/hard outcomes. Progress in human

geography, 25(3), 445-455.

Peet, R. (2003). Unholy trinity: the IMF. World Bank and WTO, London: Bloosmbury.

Poulantzas, N. (2000). State, power, socialism. London: Verso.

Saad-Filho, A. (2010). Monetary policy in the neo-liberal transition: a political economy

critique of keynesianism, monetarism and inflation targeting. In Albritton, R.,

Jessop, B., & Westra, R. (Eds), Political economy and global capitalism: the 21st century,

present and future. London: Anthem Press, pp. 89-123.

Sandbeck, S., & Schneider, E. (2014). From the sovereign debt crisis to authoritarian

statism: Contradictions of the European state project. New Political Economy, 19(6),

-871.

Slobodian, Q. (2018). Globalists. Harvard, MA: Harvard University Press.

Slobodian, Q. (2021). The backlash against neoliberal globalization from above: Elite

origins of the crisis of the new constitutionalism. Theory, Culture & Society, 38(6),

-69.

Storey, A. (2019). Authoritarian Neoliberalism in Europe: The Red Herring of Ordoliberalism.

Critical Sociology, 45(7-8), 1035-1045.

Strange, S. (1996). The retreat of the state: The diffusion of power in the world economy.

Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Tansel, C.B. (Ed.) (2017). States of discipline: Authoritarian neoliberalism and the contested

reproduction of capitalist order. Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield.

Tooze, A. (2018). Crashed: How a decade of financial crises changed the world. New York:

Penguin.

Wigger, A. (2020). The new EU industrial policy: authoritarian neoliberal structural

adjustment and the case for alternatives. In Bruff, I. and Tansel, CB (Eds.), Authoritarian

Neoliberalism. Philosophies, Practices, Contestations, London: Routledge, pp.

-137.

World Bank (1996). From Plan to Market. Oxford: World Development report.

World Bank (1997). The State in a Changing World. Oxford: World Development report.