Introduction

The past two decades have witnessed a significant transformation of the western European political economy. Originating in the 1970s in the context of a world economic crisis, this transformation has involved a fundamental restructuring of state-society relations, and with that, of the social institutions that had embedded the post-war capitalist market economies. This restructuring has been premised on a resurgence of economic liberalism: that is, a resurrection of the ideology and practice of free market economics and private enterprise. In the context of the rise of what is now referred to as neo-liberalism, western European governments have increasingly embarked upon policies of privatisation, deregulation and fiscal austerity, leading to a retrenchment of the public sector in favour of the private forces of the market.