The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism
Join us to hear Dr Clara E. Mattei, Assistant Professor in Economics at The New School for Social Research, New York City, discuss her new book The Capital Order. This talk will be chaired by IIPP’s P
The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism
18 Jan 2023, 18:30 – 20:00
In this talk, Dr Clara E. Mattei will discuss her new book The Capital Order, published in November 2022. For more than a century, governments have resorted to the economic policies of austerity—rise in interest rates, privatisation, cuts to wages and public benefits. While these policies have been successful in appeasing creditors, they’ve had devastating effects on social and economic welfare in countries all over the world. Today, as austerity remains a favoured policy among troubled states, an important question remains: What if solvency was never really the goal? In The Capital Order, Clara E. Mattei explores the origins of austerity to uncover its core function: the protection of capital—and indeed capitalism—in times of social upheaval from below. Drawing on newly uncovered archival material from Britain and Italy, much of it translated for the first time, The Capital Order offers a damning and essential new account of the rise of austerity—and of modern economics—at the levers of contemporary political power.
- Presenter: Dr Clara E. Mattei
- Chair: Prof Mariana Mazzucato
- Discussant: Dr Alberto Botta
This in person event will take place at 11 Montague Street, London, WC1B 5BP.
This event is now fully booked. If you would like to join us online please register for Zoom via the link here.
Read more about the IIPP Research Seminar Series 2022-23
Assistant Professor in Economics
The New School for Social Research in New York City
[[{"fid":"13536","view_mode":"small","fields":{"format":"small","alignment":"left","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Clara E. Mattei","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"small","alignment":"left","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Clara E. Mattei","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"}},"attributes":{"height":"500","width":"500","class":"media-element file-small media-wysiwyg-align-left"}}]]Clara E. Mattei is Assistant Professor in Economics at The New School for Social Research in New York City. Her research contributes to the history of capitalism, exploring the critical relation between economic ideas and technocratic policy making. She especially focuses on the logic of austerity and its role in shaping contemporary societies. Her method integrates historical archival sources with macro-economic empirical data. Her new book, The Capital Order: How Economists invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism has just been published by the University of Chicago Press.
Founding Director and Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value
UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
[[{"fid":"13681","view_mode":"small","fields":{"format":"small","alignment":"left","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Mariana Mazzucato","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"small","alignment":"left","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]
[[{"fid":"13677","view_mode":"small","fields":{"format":"small","alignment":"left","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Dr Alberto Botta","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"small","alignment":"left","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Dr Alberto Botta","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"}},"attributes":{"height":"292","width":"256","class":"media-element file-small media-wysiwyg-align-left"}}]]Dr. Alberto Botta is Associate Professor in economics at the University of Greenwich. He is member of the scientific committee of the Master program in Cooperation and Development of the University of Pavia (Italy). He also teaches development economics at the UN-ECLAC Latin American School of Development (Chile) and at the Master program in Cooperation and Development in the Middle East at the University of Bethlehem (Palestinian Territories). His research agenda focuses on the effects of financialization and financial integration in both developed and developing countries, as well as on fiscal policy and debt sustainability in the eurozone. On these topics, he has published in several scientific journals such as Industrial and Corporate Change, Research Policy, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Review of Keynesian Economics and Journal of post-Keynesian Economics, among others.