Abstract
Western capitalism has seen a return to stagflation since the global financial crisis. Through analysis of the causes and consequences of the stagflationary crisis, and by assessing the theory of secular stagnation, it is clear that major changes in economic policy are required to restore sustainable growth and rebuild a legitimate basis for democratic capitalism. Technical proposals to enhance demand through monetary policy innovation exist, yet arguably the real obstacles to breaking the stagflationary impasse are political and ideological, rather than simply technical. The pre-eminence of market discipline, as the organising principle of political economy over recent decades, must be surpassed. By drawing links between the stagnation of Western capitalism and the rise of populism, the chapter argues that the current political crisis of liberal democratic capitalism can only be averted by harnessing democratic mobilisation to create a new paradigm of economic governance.
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Green, J. (2018). Stagflation and the Shackles of Market Discipline. In: Hay, C., Hunt, T. (eds) The Coming Crisis. Building a Sustainable Political Economy: SPERI Research & Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63814-0_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63814-0_4
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