Popular referendum success was overridden by technocratic austerity within two months

Evidence

All of this came to a head in June 2011, when the Italian people turned out in record numbers to vote on a referendum to halt the privatization of all public utilities, including water, with the objective of transforming them into common goods. It had been more than fi ft y years since the country had successfully utilized its constitutional instrument of direct democracy in this way. Many read the episode as a signifi cant manifestation of popular agency, or perhaps more radically a step toward a modifi ed organizing of Italian social life. Two months later, and as had been the case in Italy for nearly a century, the austerity refl ex kicked in. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1562

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: direct democracy as the one avenue of resistance that elites must immediately crush — referendum defeats as the tell of austerity’s anti-democratic core.
• XREF: Echoes the earlier chapter claim that austerity is fundamentally an attack on democratic contestation. — connects to: An elected government overrode a popular referendum to impose austerity terms — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 19; Austerity policy triumphed despite its authors conceding weak empirical evidence — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 468; Austerity’s success cases are few and possibly wrong while its failures are demonstrable — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 479 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Austerity’s success cases are few and possibly wrong while its failures are demonstrable #corroborates (0.80) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 479
• Austerity politics rest on the belief that democracy cannot produce sound economic policy #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1581
• Austerity policy triumphed despite its authors conceding weak empirical evidence #corroborates (0.75) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 468
• Austerity was installed by deliberately confusing cause and correlation #corroborates (0.72) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 204
• Austerity was historically contingent, not inevitable #corroborates (0.70) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 621