Thread by @paologerbaudo

The contemporary ideological horizon is defined by the clash between Neoliberalism and Populism and the rise of an Interventionist Neo-statism which presents itself as a solution to this deadlock.

(From “The Great Recoil”, Chapter 1)

The assumption is that what is changing atm is the general ideological horizon on which various left/right views are positioned.
The basic idea notion here is that of ideological eras:
liberal > socialdemocratic > neoliberal > neostatist (?)

The return of the interventionist state was already apparent in the 2010s as the "phantom content" of various "populisms". Advocacy of hard borders on the right; recuperation of Keynesian economics on the left.

After 2020 it is a tendency that also informs the political centre, as evident in the huge stimulus packages of Biden, return of discussions on industrial policy, huge and often resented intervention of the state as result of pandemic measures.

For anyone who has lived politically through the 1990s, 2000s, and austerity 2010s it feels like an inversion of many axiomatic assumptions about politics. We are not used to this degree of state activism.

Important caveat: neo-statism doesn't mean socialism. It is more of a prism of various political responses including
- Conservative statism: "levelling up" territorial imbalances
- Progressive liberalism: "build back better" to make capitalism more politically sustainable

What matters is re-orientation of political discourse: from different views of what the market should do; to different interpretations of what the state should do. Market is bound to depend heavily on the state in coming decades.

In conclusion this change is neither "good" nor "bad" in and of itself. It is more of a change of political battlefield. And it makes a huge difference to fight on an open plain, or on a rugged terrain. Tactics and slogans have to adapt.

Perhaps some of this reasoning is still a bit counter-intuitive. It's hard to shake assumptions we have held for over 30 years. Ideas always move slower than capitalism. But the evidence of an epochal shift in general ideological coordinates is now overwhelming.