The Ungovernable Society

Rebellion was in the air. Workers were on strike, students were demonstrating on campuses, discipline was breaking down. No relation of domination was left untouched the relation between the sexes, the racial order, the hierarchies of class, relationships in families, workplaces and colleges. The upheavals of the late 1960s and early 1970s quickly spread through all sectors of social and economic life, threatening to make society ungovernable. This crisis was also the birthplace of the authoritarian liberalism which continues to cast its shadow across the world in which we now live. To ward off the threat, new arts of government were devised by elites in business-related circles, which included a war against the trade unions, the primacy of shareholder value and a dethroning of politics. The neoliberalism that thus began its triumphal march was not, however, determined by a simple state phobia and a desire to free up the economy from government interference. On the contrary, the strategy for overcoming the crisis of governability consisted in an authoritarian liberalism in which the liberalization of society went hand-in-hand with new forms of power imposed from above: a strong state for a free economy became the new magic formula of our capitalist societies. The new arts of government devised by ruling elites are still with us today and we can understand their nature and lasting influence only by re-examining the history of the conflicts that brought them into being.

Rebellion was in the air. Workers were on strike, students were demonstrating on campuses, discipline was breaking down. No relation of domination was left untouched - the relation between the sexes, the racial order, the hierarchies of class, relationships in families, workplaces and colleges. The upheavals of the late 1960s and early 1970s quickly spread through all sectors of social and economic life, threatening to make society ungovernable. This crisis was also the birthplace of the authoritarian liberalism which continues to cast its shadow across the world in which we now live.To ward off the threat, new arts of government were devised by elites in business-related circles, which included a war against the trade unions, the primacy of shareholder value and a dethroning of politics. The neoliberalism that thus began its triumphal march was not, however, determined by a simple 'state phobia' and a desire to free up the economy from government interference. On the contrary, the strategy for overcoming the crisis of governability consisted in an authoritarian liberalism in which the liberalization of society went hand-in-hand with new forms of power imposed from above: a 'strong state' for a 'free economy' became the new magic formula of our capitalist societies.The new arts of government devised by ruling elites are still with us today and we can understand their nature and lasting influence only by re-examining the history of the conflicts that brought them into being.

Table of contents:IntroductionPart I. Indocile workersChapter One. Indiscipline on the shop floorChapter Two. Human resourcesChapter Three. Social insecurityChapter Four. War on the unionsPart Two. Managerial revolutionChapter Five. A theological crisisChapter Six. Ethical managerialismChapter Seven. Disciplining the managersChapter Eight. CatallarchyPart Three. Attack on free enterpriseChapter Nine. Private government under siegeChapter Ten. The battle of ideasChapter Eleven. How to react?Chapter Twelve. The corporation does not existChapter Thirteen. Police theories of the firmPart Four. A world of protestersChapter Fourteen. Corporate counter-activismChapter Fifteen. The production of the dominant dialogyChapter Sixteen. Issue managementChapter Seventeen. StakeholdersPart Five. New regulationsChapter Eighteen. Soft lawChapter Nineteen. Costs/benefitsChapter Twenty. A critique of political ecologyChapter Twenty-One. Making people responsiblePart Six. The ungovernable stateChapter Twenty-Two. The crisis of governability of the democraciesChapter Twenty-Three. Hayek in ChileChapter Twenty-Four. The sources of authoritarian liberalismChapter Twenty-Five. Dethroning politicsChapter Twenty-Six. The micropolitics of privatizationConclusionNotesIndex