Disciplinary Neoliberalism and Anti- Austerity Movements in Europe

This paper examines the anti-austerity mobilizations that have taken place in Europe after the eruption of the Eurozone crisis, from a political economy perspective. It analyses the European anti-austerity protests against the backdrop of the economic governance in the Eurozone, and the EU’s responses to the crisis. This study aims to highlight the salient features of the neoliberal political economy framework that has led to widespread discontent, and triggered protests in the euro area. The ultimate aim of this study is to explore the reasons why European anti-austerity protests yielded no concrete results, and remained utterly ineffective. Based on a neo-Gramscian analysis of the political economy of the EU, and by making use of the concept of ‘new constitutionalism’, this study tries to reconsider the reasons why the recent anti-austerity protests in Europe have failed. Anti-austerity protests in the streets, parks and squares of the EU, from La Puerta del Sol in Madrid, to the Syntagma Square in Athens provide a good opportunity to rethink possibilities for political contestation over economic issues. Such an inquiry into the incapacity of European anti-austerity movements to stop neoliberal policies and reforms in the EU might contribute to our understandings of the limits and potential of social movements in promoting political change in Europe, and elsewhere. Inferences drawn in this study on European anti-austerity protests can shed some light on the dynamics, potential, and limits of the recent political mobilizations that continue to shake the world.