Centrist utopianism in retreat
Ideological Fragmentation After the Financial Crisis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6293309 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jack Foster (0000-0002-0359-5156, Sociology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand, corresponding author), Chamsy El-Ojeili, Chamsy El‐ojeili (0000-0003-4169-3993, Sociology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 199-218 |
| Publication date | 2023-05-04 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Political Ideologies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1356-9317 • E-ISSN: 1469-9613 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13569317.2021.1956164 |
| OpenAlex | W3186742575 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
This article explores utopian dimensions and reality problems in the intellectual production of leading Anglophone public intellectuals and policymaking institutions of Western capitalism. We argue that from the close of the 1990s, but especially in the wake of the Great Financial Crisis of 2007–2009, elite discourse has splintered into three core strands or moments: first, a post-hegemonic, punitive neoliberalism of austerity, which retreats from leadership and seeks to preserve extant power relations; second, a pragmatic neo-Keynesian turn, which frequently combines the language of enterprise and competition with advocacy of selective political and economic re-regulation towards a more socially justified capitalism; and third, the advance of a ‘liberalism of fear’, which evokes a number of threatening dystopian figures in populism, protectionism, the 1930s, extremism and totalitarianism. This splintering effect, we argue, is one of the key features of today’s wider ideological-utopian constellation, entwined with the growth of the new far right and with radicalization on the left. Drawing on a Gramscian analysis of crisis, we argue that the ideological incoherence of the dominant intellectual elite, and the denuded utopian dimensions of their discourse, are both symptomatic and productive of the present organic crisis of Western capitalism and its attendant crisis of intellectual and moral leadership
Austerity · Capitalism · Economics · Elite · Financial crisis · Hegemony · Ideology · Neoliberalism (international relations · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Populism · Sociology · Elite Sociology and Global Capitalism · Law · Political Economy and Marxism · Political theory and Gramsci
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |