Austerity policies themselves are coercive instruments of discipline on populations

Evidence

Coercion resided not only in how economic policies were passed, but in how these policies worked. Technocrats devised monetary, fi scal, and industrial policies that imposed hard work and economy on a population in need of discipline. Aft er all, as the offi cial proceedings of the Brussels resolution pointed out, “[t]he country which accepts the policy of budget defi cits is treading the slippery path which leads to general ruin; to escape from that path no sacrifi ce is too great” (Resolution II, Commission on Public Finance, Brussels 1920, vol. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 725

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that ‘coercion’ in austerity discourse operates at two levels: how policies pass (procedural) and how they work once enacted (discipline on population).
• XREF: connects to: Technocracy’s economic authority disarms citizens of agency to contest austerity — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 819; Modern austerity requires managing public opinion through consensus and coercion combined — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 818; Economists depoliticized austerity by presenting class-based coercion as neutral expertise. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1569 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Economists depoliticized austerity by presenting class-based coercion as neutral expertise. #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1569
• Monetary austerity deliberately induced recession to discipline workers. #exemplifies (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 154
• Austerity policies function to silence working class economic demands #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 774
• Austere economies structurally disempower those who would protest austerity #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1541
• Austerity disciplines workers within both colonizer and colonized nations alike #expands (0.82) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 339
• Austerity is state intervention transferring resources from the many to the few #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 195
• Economic theory gives austerity legitimacy that complements raw state coercion #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 861
• Austerity structurally dismantled the workers’ movement and its economic alternatives #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 654