Neoliberal economics revived Fascist-era contempt for public employees

Evidence

Alberto Alesina, who studied economics as an undergraduate at Bocconi before a career at Harvard, bemoaned publicsector jobs as creating a “culture of dependency” whereby “residents in the South [of Italy] demand more public employment in order to take advantage of a large income premium and a greater job security” (Danninger, Alesina, and Rostagno 1999, 3– 4). To Alesina and others before him, public employment was synonymous with individuals who were unprepared to “face the market” (ibid.). In other words, citizens were unwilling to accept high enough exploitation. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1242

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: tracing how ‘culture of dependency’ framing traveled from interwar Italian technocrats to Harvard economics — the forgotten Fascist genealogy of a mainstream term.
• XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s core thesis of austerity-as-class-weapon and to modern welfare critique literature. — connects to: IMF austerity economists reused the fascist playbook of labor discipline — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 231; Economists served fascism by reestablishing the economics-politics divide — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 193; Italian economists framed public employment as destroying the work ethic — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1241 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Economists served fascism by reestablishing the economics-politics divide #qualifies (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 193
• Neo-liberalism collapses labor into capital and frames the individual as an enterprise #expands (0.85) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 1218
• Neoliberalism’s freedom ideology borrowed from fascist critics of liberalism #corroborates (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 234
• Italian economists framed public employment as destroying the work ethic #corroborates (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1241
• Fascist austerity dismantled postwar gains and re-separated economics from politics #corroborates (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 193
• Fascist austerity dismantled welfare, cut taxes on capital, and banned unions #qualifies (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 193