Neoliberalism and banking crisis bailouts: distant enemies or warring neighbors?

Jeffrey M. Chwieroth and Andrew Walter

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: How should we understand proliferating government bailouts of financial firms in successive crises since the 1970s and the rise of neoliberal norms opposing such discretionary public assistance? We argue that the relationship between bailouts and neoliberalism is one of mutually reinforcing coexistence. First, a new “bailout coalition” including much of the middle class has emerged in many countries over the past century, pushing governments to deliver extensive bailouts in crises. Second, many actors, including some within the bailout coalition, view neoliberal policy norms as a useful constraint on public assistance to other groups. This is especially visible during foreign crises. Third, governments often manage these conflicting pressures via a strategy of institutional “conversion,” adapting institutions and rules associated with neoliberalism to new purposes. This has generated rising costs, including declining policy coherence, increasing financial fragility, and rising distributional and identity conflict.

Keywords: UKRI; fund (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F3 G3 N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16 pages
Date: 2022-09-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fdg and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in Public Administration, 1, September, 2022, 100(3), pp. 600 - 615. ISSN: 0033-3298

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/111871/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:111871

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().