Populism and Social Citizenship: An Anglo-American Comparison

Abstract

Since the Great Financial Crisis that erupted in 2008, both the US and the UK have experienced a new age of welfare austerity. This chapter explores what has happened by first tracing the conditions for the foundations of the Anglo-American welfare state, laid during the New Deal era in the US in the early 1930s and in Britain after 1945. It shows how the passing away of those conditions produced the atmosphere that led to important recent events in the Anglo-American world—notably the election of President Trump and the ‘Brexit’ vote. These events are commonly discussed in the language of populism. In many discussions of populism the ‘problem’ is assumed to lie in the attitudes and behaviour of ordinary citizens. This chapter argues that the problem lies not with these ordinary citizens but with the elites who have destroyed the postwar settlement and are now living with the consequences.

Much of the evidence reported in this chapter comes from Moran’s work with the Foundational Economy collective at Manchester: see https://foundationaleconomy and Foundational Economy Collective 2018. Following Michael Moran’s death in April 2018, this chapter was edited for publication by Joe Moran. Michael Moran thanked Peter Folkman, Julie Froud, Sukhdev Johal, Joe Moran, Winifred Moran and Karel Williams for comments on earlier drafts.