Austerity was capitalism’s manufactured response to worker challenges

Evidence

Th e crisis of capitalism that followed the Great War was, for some people of means, an acute and terrifying development. Once workers stormed the stage of history with ideas for an alternative society, the defense of capitalism took on novel and more powerful forms. Guardians of capitalism went back to the drawing board to refurbish the old order, and their manufacture of austerity became their main weapon. Austerity consisted of a twofold process, at once material and ideological. Or better, it consisted of a twofold strategy— coercion and consensus. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 585

Categorization

• XREF: The coercion/consensus duality echoes Gramsci’s hegemony and connects to the reader’s broader interest in how ruling classes reimpose order. — connects to: A tiny economy’s crisis was weaponized as a metaphor for austerity — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 202; Austerity’s core purpose is to deepen workers’ dependence on wage labor — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 145; International economists forged austerity as a deliberate antiworker project — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 194 (+22 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: Condenses the thesis that austerity is an actively manufactured weapon — coercion plus consensus — rather than a natural or necessary economic response.

Broader Connections

• Austerity arose in response to mass political challenge to capitalism itself #corroborates (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 798
• Monetary austerity deliberately induced recession to discipline workers. #exemplifies (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 154
• Capitalism’s 1918-20 crisis triggered austerity as a counterrevolutionary reaction. #qualifies (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 115
• Austerity masquerades as apolitical science while bending workers to capital’s will #expands (0.85)
• Austerity framed economic crisis as caused by governments and workers, not capital #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 783
• Austerity structurally dismantled the workers’ movement and its economic alternatives #expands (0.82) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 654