Even avowedly socialist parties have embraced austerity at critical junctures

Evidence

All the parties that govern us, regardless of their political leanings, accept the capitalist context in which they operate as an indisputable premise. Even the Italian Communist Party and the British Labour Party have championed austerity policies at many critical junctures in history. We are therefore talking about a consensus that transcends ideologies and parties, which is embraced even by those considered to be on the side of workers. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 364

Categorization

• XREF: Direct support for the reader’s stress-test of the claim that democracy is structurally incapable of opposing capitalism — party competition is cosmetic. — connects to: The German left endorsed hard-core austerity, seeing crisis as necessary correction — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 531; Europe’s Social Democrats and Christian Democrats embraced austerity as crisis policy — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 168; Socialist parties themselves introduced key neoliberal reforms in several countries. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 1909 (+2 more)