World War I collapsed the economic-political divide and exposed markets’ inadequacy
Evidence
Prior to the First World War, this “natural” order of things found its sturdiest practice in Britain, the capitalist empire par excellence for more than two hundred years, as well as in younger nationstates such as Italy. But the war’s demand for domestic production quickly produced a complete subversion of such entrenched foundations— suddenly capitalism did not appear to be so natural aft er all. Th ere ensued a collapse of the divide between the economic and the political that entailed the dwindling of the unchallenged status of the two pillars. … During the war, the state demolished its former boundaries of action. Faced with the choice between life or death, victory or defeat, war governments were forced into implementing economic practices that were unheard of— or better, unimaginable— until that moment. Th e selfregulating capacities of the market had proved inadequate for the unprecedented productive necessities of the war struggle. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 104
Categorization
- XREF: Sets up the war-and-crisis Part I frame; connects to historiographies of WWI economic mobilization (e.g., the ‘war socialism’ literature). — connects to: WWI forced Britain and Italy to abandon free-market doctrine for state intervention — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 214; World War I proved large redistributive state reforms were fiscally viable — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 225; War socialism destroyed capitalism’s taken-for-granted inevitability and exposed profit as contestable — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 337 (+6 more)
- SEED: Angle: the ideological emergency that normal market self-regulation failed under war is the same emergency austerity claims will answer — a reusable two-phase rhetorical structure.
Broader Connections
- War exposed the market’s self-regulating capacity as inadequate for total production
#corroborates(0.93) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 106 - WWI’s state economic control revealed the economy’s inherent political nature
#expands(0.85)