Emma Bell

There is an alternative: Challenging the logic of neoliberal penality

This article seeks to sketch out alternatives to neoliberal penality by seeking to undermine the four institutional logics of neoliberalism as identified by Loïc Wacquant (2009). It begins by critically analysing the potential value of public criminology as an exit strategy, suggesting that whilst this approach has much value, popular versions of it are in fact rather limited on account of their exclusion of offenders themselves from the debate and their optimism about the capacity of existing institutions to challenge the current punitive consensus. It suggests that a genuinely ‘public’ criminology should be informed by an abolitionist stance to both current penal policies and the neoliberal system as a whole. This may be the best means of truly democratizing penal politics.

Empowering the People

This chapter focuses on the Coalition’s efforts to responsibilise specific ‘problematic’ groups of people. It is argued that a form of moral authoritarianism permeates policy in this area, whereby subjects can only be ‘made’ free via a number of coercive policies which seek to render them more responsible. Policy towards the poor, immigrants and ethnic minorities is analysed and it is argued that coercion is regarded as the only route to becoming ‘empowered’ fully fledged citizens. While policies towards the poor and immigrants are underpinned by moral authoritarianism, the Coalition has nonetheless shown itself to be morally liberal with regard to homosexuals, allowing it to present a more acceptable ‘modern’ image of itself and to mask the illiberalism deployed with regard to other populations.

Soft power and corporate imperialism: maintaining British influence

It is often suggested that Britain has lost its great power status since the fall of Empire. Yet, whilst its military and economic power has undoubtedly been weakened, it continues to exert power and influence and to promote national interests via the exercise of both hard and soft power. Far from representing a novel strategy, this simultaneous deployment of both forms of power may be considered as a continuation of the dual imperial strategy of gunboat diplomacy and winning hearts and minds at home and abroad. Yet, the postcolonial era does represent some novelty: as was clear under the Conservative-led coalition and is now evident under a Conservative majority government, soft power is no longer exercised principally via cultural diplomacy, through, for example, the British Council, but increasingly via large companies which promote British economic and political interests through corporate imperialism.

Legislating for Freedom

The first part of the chapter focuses on the legislative measures taken by the Coalition to restore civil liberties, notably under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. While some of the most-criticised measures taken by the New Labour governments have been repealed or limited, it is argued that these changes do little to protect civil liberties. Indeed, the latter are endangered by the as-yet unrealised promise to repeal the Human Rights Act and, most significantly, by the extensive surveillance powers of the British government and its allies (both political and corporate) which seriously threaten the right to privacy. The second part of the chapter focuses on crime prevention measures, concluding that very little has changed in practice since the New Labour years.

Brexit and the Illusion of Democracy

The British referendum vote in favour of leaving the European Union was considered by many right-wing and Eurosceptic media outlets and politicians to be “a victory for democracy”. The popular tabloid the Daily Express, on the day following the vote, encouraged other European nations to follow the United Kingdom and “free [them]selves from the shackles of the dying European Union” (Daily Express 2016). Boris Johnson, prominent Tory “Leave” campaigner, now the British Foreign Secretary, regarded the vote as a defining moment in Britain’s democratic history (Johnson 2016), whilst former Prime Minister David Cameron described the referendum itself as “a giant democratic exercise – perhaps the biggest in our history” (Cameron 2016). Although, unlike Johnson, Cameron may not have regarded the actual result as a victory for democracy, he accepted that the will of the people “must be respected”, thus implicitly linking respect for democracy to popular sovereignty. Politicians who supported “Leave” were particularly keen to make this link. Boris Johnson, writing just a few days after the referendum, attempted to explain the result, stating that the “number one issue” was “control – a sense that British democracy was being undermined by the EU system, and that we should restore to the people that vital power: to kick out their rulers at elections, and to choose new ones” (Johnson 2016). Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage also suggested that the vote to leave the EU was about popular sovereignty, about “the ordinary people” revolting against the elites and “big politics” to regain control and be an “independent, self-governing” nation (Farage 2016). Closely linked to this concern to give control back to the people was the desire to restore full parliamentary sovereignty so that their views could be fully expressed and respected via the mechanisms of representative democracy. The idiosyncratic pro-Brexit Tory MP Michael Gove made this clear when he declared: Socialism and Democracy, 2017 Vol. 31, No. 3, 52–73, https://doi.org/10.1080/08854300.2017.1368888

Insistiendo en el neoliberalismo: la permanente influencia del neoliberalismo en la penalidad contemporánea

Resumen El articulo se interroga si el neoliberalismo continua siendo una explicacion util de las tendencias penales contemporaneas. El texto comienza con una breve definicion de neo-liberalismo, antes de poner de relieve como el paradigma continua exacerbando las ten-dencias punitivas, tomando como ejemplo el Reino Unido. Aunque no se sostiene que el neoliberalismo por si solo pueda explicar esas tendencias punitivas, sino que han de tenerse en cuenta variables locales, continua siendo un factor importante. Ante todo, es politicamente necesario reconocer el papel que juega el neoliberalismo si queremos salir del actual impasse penal, y articular alterna-tivas verdaderamente nuevas. Palabras clave neoliberalismo / punitividad / penalidad / Reino

Economic Policy: From Small State to Big Business

This chapter focuses on the Coalition’s economic policy, notably the two prongs of austerity and privatisation. Contrary to the TINA discourse that there is no alternative, it is shown that there was in fact an alternative to the economic policy followed. Although in reality austerity has not been as severe as originally intended, it is demonstrated that the discourse of austerity as the only possible path to follow has been effective in political terms. While government was to be deresponsibilised for tough economic decisions, citizens themselves were to be responsibilised. Yet, they have not been empowered: the main beneficiaries of economic policy have been large corporations as an ever-closer coalition of interests has been forged between the latter and the State.

Solving the Paradox of Liberal Politics

This chapter attempts to understand the paradox of liberal politics under the coalition in Britain. It begins by attempting to situate liberal authoritarianism in conservative and liberal traditions. It then looks at the role played by statecraft, asking if liberal authoritarianism has been motivated less by ideology and more by a simple desire to stay in power. The coalition strategy is viewed in light of the statecraft of neoliberal governmentality, as a way of shifting responsibility onto individuals, making them more ‘free’ to govern their own lives and take their own decisions, through coercive means if necessary. A brief look at neoliberal theory demonstrates how state coercion in some spheres has always been deemed acceptable in the name of a narrow conception of freedom.

Exporting Soft Power

The focus of this chapter is on foreign policy. The ‘liberal’ conservative approach of the coalition government is characterised by a ‘soft’ rather than ‘hard’ approach, seeking to spread influence abroad via international aid and cultural programmes rather than through military intervention. This liberal approach masks authoritarianism since, rather than furthering the interests of local peoples, humanitarian intervention is primarily used to further British interests, enabling the state to project a positive image abroad and British corporations to benefit from new contracts providing consulting services to developing states and investing in newly privatised industries and services.

Decentring the State

The chapter aims to determine whether or not power has really been devolved from the central state by analysing the peculiarities of coalition politics and the coalition’s localism agenda. It is suggested that localism has largely been a failure in terms of genuinely transferring power from central government to local people. But the strategy has been effective in terms of allowing the government to divest itself of responsibility for policy failure via the responsibilisation of local institutions while opening up new markets for the private sector. The localism agenda may more accurately be considered as a strategy of governmentality than one of simple governance owing to the way in which it seeks to use non-governmental actors to pursue its own agenda.