Neoliberal Crisis, Policies of Confusion, and Populist Authoritarianism

Abstract

In 2008, the global financial crisis had such emblematic institutions as Blackstone or the popular investment bank Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy. The virtual totality of the American and European banking and insurance sectors had to be rescued at enormous expense. In the middle of this great crisis, we saw the emergences of many proposals to “reform neoliberal capitalism”. Besides this, there was enormous political confusion, linked to the inadequate resolution of economic crises and an accumulated feeling of unease experienced by large parts of the populations, who felt demeaned and abandoned by the governing institutions, which, in turn, caused political disaffection and social anomy. Amid all this, many of the alternatives put forward by populist movements were about establishing new institutions and ending present ones, which no one knows what consequences will have in the long term. This will be the axis around which our reflexion and analysis will revolve in this article.