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Ruling Ideas. How Global Neoliberalism Goes Local by Cornel Ban, Oxford University Press, 2016, 314 pages
Cornel Ban's book provides an economic and historical narrative of two distinct articulations of neoliberalism: the case of Spain and the case of Romania. These two compelling cases are presented as vastly different from each other. Spain on the one hand represents a moderate market economy, and thus seen as embedded neoliberalism, with numerous social measures aimed at regulating the free market impetus. On the other hand, Romania is regarded as a more radical case, having newly adopted this type of market economy, termed disembedded neoliberalism. The book is structured into four parts, each with two chapters dealing with different aspects of the two cases. For the purposes of this review, the chapters discussing Spain will be combined into a continuous narrative, likewise for the case of Romania.
In the case of Spain, resistance to free market liberalization was a common occurrence. In numerous instances during the country's history, Spanish elites retained a significant degree of welfare measures. Beginning with the 1970s economic policies started shifting from Keynesian to new Keynesian economics, emphasizing monetarist strategies instead of interventionist ones. The economy stood on middle ground between state intervention and market fundamentalism. Key industrial assets received state support, while liberal elements from the new classical school were gradually implemented. The long-time socialist governing party, PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español), lost its left leaning members during the early 1980s, while the national workers union, UGT (Unión General de Trabajadores), failed to maintain existing Keynesian policies. In 1989, Spain's central bank joined the EMS (European Monetary System) leading to more drastic export oriented neoliberal policies with significant effects: monetary schemes aimed at reducing inflation, labour market deregulation, tax cuts for higher income and privatization of...