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When we think of the rise of Fascism in Italy, we often picture blackshirts, street brawls, and the March on Rome. We think of violence. But there was another, quieter form of violence that was just as instrumental in cementing Mussolini’s power: austerity. In this week’s podcast, I explored a fascinating paper by economist Clara Mattei, Austerity and Repressive Politics. Mattei argues that the early years of the Fascist regime (1922-1925) were defined by a brutal economic agenda designed to roll back the democratic gains of the post-WWI era. The Fear of Democracy After the First World War, Italy experienced a…
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When historians look back at the early 21st century in Britain, the defining theme will not be Brexit or the pandemic, but austerity. It is a policy that has reshaped the social fabric of the nation more profoundly than any event since the Second World War. In this week’s podcast, I sat down with Dr. Rachel Morris to discuss her anthology, Levelling Down. This collection of essays from Bylines Cymru documents the devastation wrought by 15 years of cuts—a process that has arguably “de-developed” the UK. The Economics of Cruelty The logic of austerity, introduced by the Coalition government in 2010, was purportedly…
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How Britain’s political economy became locked into asset-driven growth and self-imposed austerity—and why escaping it demands reimagining both democracy and the state. Introduction In the middle decades of the twentieth century, Britain built a mixed economy: one that combined industrial production, collective bargaining, and an expanding welfare state. Today, that settlement feels remote. For many citizens, the modern British economy no longer produces tangible wealth but instead circulates it—through ever-rising housing costs, private debt, and volatile financial markets. Behind the rhetoric of fiscal prudence lies a deeper structural transformation: the emergence of what political economists call the financialised and asset-based…