Introduction

Uniquely, of the four economic recessions of the last sixty years, this ‘recovery’ is based on cutting the state, and the scope of its services. In all the others the temporary slump in tax receipts, and the rise in the proportion of GDP spent by the government were passing phases that were quickly ameliorated by the return to economic growth. Only in this recession, the first since 1929 to be created by financial institutions’ speculation, has government expenditure been the sole focus of politics. The argument this chapter takes supports an argument that this unique choice of austerity in a time of growth, taken as the economy has gradually returned to the 2008 level, is the outcome of political compulsion not economic necessity.