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BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE POLITICAL ECONOMY:
SPERI RESEARCH & POLICY
British Capitalism
After the Crisis
Scott Lavery
Building a Sustainable Political Economy: SPERI
Research & Policy
Series Editors
Colin Hay
SPERI
University of Sheffield
Sheffield, UK
Anthony Payne
SPERI
University of Sheffield
Sheffield, UK
The Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) is an inno-
vation in higher education research and outreach. It brings together
leading international researchers in the social sciences, policy makers,
journalists and opinion formers to reassess and develop proposals in
response to the political and economic issues posed by the current com-
bination of financial crisis, shifting economic power and environmental
threat. Building a Sustainable Political Economy: SPERI Research &
Policy will serve as a key outlet for SPERI’s published work. Each title
will summarise and disseminate to an academic and postgraduate stu-
dent audience, as well as directly to policy-makers and journalists, key
policy-oriented research findings designed to further the development
of a more sustainable future for the national, regional and world econ-
omy following the global financial crisis. It takes a holistic and interdis-
ciplinary view of political economy in which the local, national, regional
and global interact at all times and in complex ways. The SPERI research
agenda, and hence the focus of the series, seeks to explore the core eco-
nomic and political questions that require us to develop a new sustaina-
ble model of political economy at all times and in complex ways.
British Capitalism
After the Crisis
Scott Lavery
Sheffield Political Economy Research
Institute (SPERI)
University of Sheffield
Sheffield, UK
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
To my grandma, Helen Burnett
Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the intellectual input
and personal support of a great many people. The book began its life as a
Ph.D. thesis. I would like to thank my Ph.D. supervisor and Co-Director
of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI), Colin
Hay, for his invaluable engagement with my work. It was a great priv-
ilege to be supervised by Colin, and I have benefited immeasurably
from his generous support throughout the research and writing process.
I would also like to thank my second supervisor, Jonathan Joseph, for
his encouragement and for his many insightful thoughts on the pro-
ject. I would also like to extend my warmest thanks to Tony Payne, the
co-founder and former Co-Director of the Sheffield Political Economy
Research Institute (SPERI). I was fortunate enough to receive funding
for the Ph.D. from SPERI, and I am incredibly grateful to Tony and to
SPERI for this opportunity.
Other colleagues at SPERI also strongly merit a mention. During the
first five years of SPERI’s life, I was fortunate enough to share my work-
space with a fantastic group of people. Craig Berry, Martin Craig, Adam
Barber, Hannah Lambie-Munford, Tom Hunt, Sarah Boswell and Laure
Astill all deserve a special mention in this regard. Jeremy Green, a former
colleague at SPERI, has become an intellectual collaborator and good
friend over the course of writing the thesis and this book. It has also
been a pleasure to work alongside other colleagues—notably SPERI’s
new Co-Directors Genevieve le Baron and Adam Leaver—as well as
Andrew Baker, Liam Stanley, Kaisa Pietila, Patrick Kaczmarczyk, Edward
vii
viii Acknowledgements
Pemberton and many others within the SPERI office over the past few
years. All these people make the institute a brilliant and highly collegial
place to pursue research.
Andrew Gamble and Matthew Watson examined the original Ph.D.
thesis and provided erudite feedback which helped me to transform the
thesis into a book. I thank them both for their intellectual engagement
and for the professional support which they provided me with through-
out the early stages of my academic career. During my time at the
University of York, it was my MA supervisor, Chris Rogers, who encour-
aged me to consider embarking upon a Ph.D. I would like to thank him
for his support and advice during this period. The Department of Politics
at the University of Sheffield has also been an excellent place to study
and to develop both intellectually and professionally. Thanks to the aca-
demic and administrative staff who make the Department such a good
place to work. Matt Bishop, Owen Parker, Burak Tansel, Simon Bulmer
and Andy Hindmoor all merit a special mention, alongside colleagues at
SPERI who I mentioned above. Each has provided invaluable feedback
on my work at various stages for which I am hugely grateful. I also made
a number of very good friends within the Ph.D. community at Sheffield
who helped to shape my thinking in important ways. In particular, the
neo-Gramscian reading group was a source of great inspiration and
enjoyment for me. Davide Schmid, James Chamberlain, Robbie Pye,
Sam Morecroft, Vanessa Bilancetti, Rasmus Hovedskov and Jonathan
Webb have all engaged in this group in a highly collaborative spirit.
I couldn’t hope for a better partner than Stephanie Wardle who has
been a source of incredible support, companionship and love over the
past few years. Finally I thank my family—Fiona, Colin, Gavin, Gillian
and Helen—for all the love and encouragement they have given to me
over the years. Without them, this book would not have been possible. I
dedicate this book to my grandma, Helen Burnett.
Contents
1 Introduction 1
8 Conclusion 217
Index 227
ix
List of Figures
Fig. 2.1 UK real wage growth (1979–2013) (Source Office for national
statistics [ONS, 2014]. Average weekly earnings deflated
by RPI, percent change on the same quarter a year ago.
Each interval point refers to Q1 of each year) 23
Fig. 5.1 Projected v. Actual Deficit Reduction (Source Adapted
from: Van Reenen, 2015: 3) 127
Fig. 5.2 Regional House Prices, 2008–2015 (Source Nationwide
House Price Index) 134
Fig. 5.3 Net Loan Acquisitions 2007–2015 (Source Office
for National Statistics. National Accounts) 137
Fig. 5.4 Savings ratio 2001–2014 (Source Office for National
Statistics. National Accounts) 138
xi
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
The global financial crisis of 2008 embodied the biggest shock to the
capitalist system since the Great Depression. Crises on this scale have his-
torically produced large transformations. The 1930s crisis destroyed the
gold standard and eventually ushered in the Bretton Woods settlement.
The 1970s ‘stagflationary’ crisis unravelled the compromise of post-
war capitalism and was followed by a far-reaching project of neoliberal
restructuring. Many observers expected a similar transformation to occur
in the wake of the 2008 crisis. The decade which followed the crash has
been one of profound turbulence. But whether this ‘post-crisis’ conjunc-
ture will give rise to a new capitalist order remains an open question.
There is evidence of both continuity and change within post-crisis
capitalism. On the one hand, deep public expenditure cuts, sustained real
wage decline and welfare retrenchment intensified across many advanced
capitalist states. Neoliberal policy ideas proved markedly resilient whilst
inequality intensified (Schmidt & Thatcher, 2013). However, important
shifts were also afoot in this post-crisis era. Central banks engaged in sus-
tained programmes of ‘loose’ monetary policy, exemplified by sustained
low interest rates and the unorthodox monetary policy of Quantitative
Easing (Green & Lavery, 2018). Despite these efforts, low growth and
the danger of deflation endured as threats to the advanced capitalist
order. At the same time, anti-establishment forces and political parties on
both the right and the left emerged, challenging some of the core tenets
of the pre-crisis order (Blyth & Matthijs, 2017; Watkins, 2016).
This book focuses on the case of British capitalism after the crisis. It
examines the extent to which British capitalism has been transformed by
the 2008 crash and its aftermath. Four distinct phases of development
can be identified in the prelude to and the fallout from the 2008 crisis in
Britain. First, between September 1992 and the 2008 crash, the British
economy underwent a phase of relatively sustained economic expan-
sion. During this period, unemployment fell, inflation remained low and
economic output expanded at a steady annual rate. At the height of this
period, political elites claimed that Britain’s liberalised market economy
demonstrated how economic dynamism and sustained non-inflationary
growth could be secured under conditions of globalisation. In 2006,
the then-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, infamously pro-
claimed that ‘boom and bust’ had been effectively abolished under his
watch. Tight counter-inflationary policy, ‘light touch’ regulation of the
financial services sector, labour market flexibilisation and ‘prudential’
macroeconomic management had produced, he claimed, a period of sus-
tained and apparently stable economic expansion within Britain.
With the 2008 crisis, this phase of economic expansion came to an
abrupt halt. From March 2008, the UK entered the deepest eco-
nomic downturn which it had experienced in the post-war period.
Subsequently, under the newly formed Coalition government, Britain
narrowly averted a ‘double dip’ recession in 2012. Economic growth
throughout this period was consistently low. This phase of protracted
economic stagnation had a profound impact on the structure of the
British economy. Between 2008 and 2013, productivity growth flat-
lined, as the UK recorded its worst productivity performance in over 45
years (Jones, 2013: 2). Private investment fell by 10.5% between 2010
and 2013 (Lee, 2015: 23), whilst public investment simultaneously col-
lapsed by 40% (Van Reenen, 2015: 3). Real wages fell by 10% between
2008 and 2015, meaning that Britain experienced the largest real terms
wage cut of any European economy with the exception of Greece (TUC,
2016). At the same time, attempts to eliminate the budget deficit—the
annual amount of borrowing required to finance the difference between
government revenues and expenditure—were consistently frustrated due
to weak tax receipts and lower than expected economic growth. Sixteen
years of economic ‘boom’ were followed—contrary to the expectations
of New Labour’s ‘Iron Chancellor’—by the largest ‘bust’ which the
British economy had experienced since the Great Depression.
1 INTRODUCTION 3
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