TY - GEN digital ID - 131560628 TI - Austerity Politics and UK Economic Policy PY - 2016 SN - 9781137590107 PB - London Palgrave Macmillan UK :Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan DB - UniCat KW - International relations. Foreign policy KW - Politics KW - Economic policy and planning (general) KW - Public administration KW - politieke wetenschappen KW - buitenlandse politiek KW - economische politiek KW - politiek KW - Europese politiek KW - administratie KW - Great Britain UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:131560628 AB - Craig Berry assesses UK economic policy in the wake of the financial crisis through the lens of the austerity agenda, focusing on monetary policy, economic rebalancing, industrial and regional policy, the labour market, welfare reform and budgetary management. He argues that austerity is geared towards a resurrection of financialisation and the UK’s pre-crisis economic model, through the transformation of individual behaviour and demonisation of the state. Cutting public spending and debt in the short term is, at most, a secondary concern for the UK policy elite. However, the underlying purpose of austerity is frequently misunderstood due to its conflation with a narrow deficit reduction agenda, not least by its Keynesian critics. Berry also demonstrates how austerity has effectively dismantled the prospect of a centre-left alternative to neoliberalism. ER -