Tim Weaver
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This document discusses the shift from Keynesian economics to neoliberalism in urban politics and policy in the United States and Britain between 1976-2000. It argues that neoliberalism undermined cities' governing capacity and launched a new trajectory of political development that proceeded through two logics: neoliberalization by default through events like financial crises, and neoliberalization by design through targeted policy changes imposed by national elites. It provides examples of neoliberalization by design in London Docklands and neoliberalization by default through financial collapse and ideological shifts in Philadelphia.
Tim Weaver
- 1. Neoliberalism in the Trenches: Urban Politics and Policy in the United States and Britain, 1976-2000 Tim Weaver Political Science
- 2. From the age of consensus… Nixon: “I am now a Keynesian on economics” (1971)
- 3. …to the Age of Fracture Callaghan: “We used to think that you could spend your way out of a recession…by cutting taxes and boosting government spending. I tell you in all candour that that option no longer exists” (1976)
- 4. Argument The neoliberal turn: radically undermined cities’ governing capacity and authority; launched a new trajectory of neoliberal political development; proceeded according to two different logics-- neoliberalization by default and by design
- 5. Neoliberalism defined A political-economic theory and rhetorical framework that rests on the notion that freedom, justice, and well-being are best guaranteed by a political economic system that promotes private property, open markets, and free trade and which privileges the interests of financial capital. Capital privileged over labor; private over public; market over welfare state. Enterprise zones; empowerment zones; privatization etc.
- 6. London Docklands: Neoliberalism by Design
- 7. Docklands Neoliberalism by design: • Process by which national or local elites harness the power of state institutions to impose a neoliberal blueprint. • Flagship enterprise zone—tax reduction and deregulation. • Site of the London Docklands Development Corporation— land and power stripped from local authorities and given to unelected board. • Central government as neoliberal activist; the state is reoriented rather than replaced.
- 8. Philadelphia transformed 1950 2007
- 9. Philadelphia Neoliberalism by default • Logic of coalition building, financial collapse, and/or ideological constriction propels neoliberalization. • Coalition building: business-African American anti-Rizzo alliance. • Early 1990s financial collapse: creation of PICA that required “structural adjustment.” • Ideological constriction under Rendell: attacks on unions, privatization, TINA.