1970s Stagflation

The 1970s crisis of stagflation is often represented as a crisis of capitalism inciting transformation from post-war social democracy to neoliberalism, but was that really how the crisis was experienced at the time? Was capitalism itself at risk, or was this just a crisis in capitalism and of British politics? Is social democracy the right way to understand the post-war period? Were the unions as powerful as we're told? Did Thatcherism decisively solve the problem of inflation as is claimed? Given the prevalence of historical analogy, what can the 1970s (and, indeed, the 1930s) tell us about our current crisis-ridden conjuncture?

Colin Hay was a founding co-Director for SPERI in 2012 and remains in that position today. He is also a Professor of Political Sciences in the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics at Sciences Po in Paris. He joins Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley to discuss the international factors underpinning the1970s crisis of stagflation, misunderstandings about trade unions and inflation during the Winter of Discontent, ironic legacies of Keynesianism, Thatcherism as a political project, neoliberalisation as a process, and constructivist approaches to crisis.

Recommended reading:
1) Colin Hay, Narrating Crisis: The Discursive Construction of the `Winter of Discontent', Sociology (1996)
2) Leo Panitch, The Impasse of Social Democratic Politics, Socialist Register (1986)

Works referenced in this episode:
1) Colin Hay's doctoral thesis: 'Re-stating crisis : strategic moments in the structural transformation of the state in post-war Britain' (1995)
2) Ben Bernanke's doctoral thesis: 'Long-term commitments, dynamic optimization, and the business cycle' (1979)