Redistribution in an Age of Neoliberalism: Market Economics, ‘Poverty Knowledge’, and the Growth of Working-Age Benefits in Britain, c. 1979–2010
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Authors
Publication Date
2019Journal Title
Political Studies
ISSN
0032-3217
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Volume
67
Issue
3
Pages
732-751
Type
Article
This Version
AM
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Sloman, P. (2019). Redistribution in an Age of Neoliberalism: Market Economics, ‘Poverty Knowledge’, and the Growth of Working-Age Benefits in Britain, c. 1979–2010. Political Studies, 67 (3), 732-751. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321718800495
Abstract
<jats:p>The expansion of cash benefits to low-paid workers has been one of the most significant developments in recent UK public policy. Since 1979, transfer payments to working-age households have trebled in real terms, helping to offset increases in wage inequality. Adopting a discursive institutionalist approach, this article argues that the growth of transfer payments partly reflects the influence of what John Kay has called ‘Redistributive Market Liberalism’ – the belief that poverty and inequality are best alleviated through income transfers outside the market. Although its roots can be traced back to the 1940s, Redistributive Market Liberalism came to the fore after 1979 in the context of a reaction against trade union power and renewed confidence in neoclassical microeconomics, and reached its apogee in New Labour’s child poverty strategy. The 2008 financial crisis, however, appears to have disrupted the ascendancy of this free-market philosophy and prompted a return to more interventionist forms of distributional politics.</jats:p>
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External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321718800495
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/287866
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