The Modern State Subverted: Risk and the Deconstruction of Solidarity
Giuseppe Di Palma
Nov 2013 · ECPR Press
Ebook
136
Pages
About this ebook
Until recently, liberalism was, according to Karl Polanyi, embedded within civil
society, working closely with a democratic state intent on addressing, in
solidarity, the social risks associated with modern capitalism.
Modern
relations between society and the state have been, at best, ones of shared
language and goals rather than necessary conflict. Already under the
polizeistaat, absolutist rulers took, in their own way, the care of their
population as central to their rule. The welfare state was only the most
innovative embodiment of such collective concerns.
Today’s neoliberalism
is, to the contrary, a subversion of liberal embeddedness. It is the utopia of
market fundamentalism intent, by the power of its perversity narrative of the
past, on replacing socially embedded market and government with a dispiriting,
socially isolating Malthusian project.
society, working closely with a democratic state intent on addressing, in
solidarity, the social risks associated with modern capitalism.
Modern
relations between society and the state have been, at best, ones of shared
language and goals rather than necessary conflict. Already under the
polizeistaat, absolutist rulers took, in their own way, the care of their
population as central to their rule. The welfare state was only the most
innovative embodiment of such collective concerns.
Today’s neoliberalism
is, to the contrary, a subversion of liberal embeddedness. It is the utopia of
market fundamentalism intent, by the power of its perversity narrative of the
past, on replacing socially embedded market and government with a dispiriting,
socially isolating Malthusian project.
About the author
Giuseppe Di Palma is emeritus professor of Political Science, University of California at Berkeley, where he has taught since 1964. He has written on political behaviour (Apathy and Participation, 1970), on Italian politics (Surviving without Governing, 1977), on transitions to democracy, and on democratic theory (To Craft Democracies, 1990). In the years since his retirement he has turned his attention to the American political system and American politics, and to the role of ideas and narratives in politics.
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