Introduction: Privatisation and the Crisis of Social Europe

The central themes of this book are the processes of liberalisation and privatisation and their consequences for economic development, social cohesion and political democracy in the European Union. The worldwide financial meltdown following the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States has fundamentally called into question the established pattern of globalisation and the dominant neo-liberal framework of economic governance and policy which was gradually set up in more and more parts of the world since the late 1970s. During the last few years it has become increasingly clear that the policies of liberalisation and opening up more areas to the market, of deregulation and privatisation, and of establishing the rule of competition as the overarching point of reference for economic and social reproduction have not fulfilled the promises and expectations which accompanied their introduction. Instead, they have unleashed destructive dynamics in two directions. On the one hand, they have contributed to the enormous social polarisation and growing inequality throughout the world and in almost every single society. On the other hand, the liberalisation of capital movements and the creation of global capital markets have not reduced but exacerbated the inherent instability of the capitalist mode of production.