The British State In Trouble: Brexit and Financialisation - by Division of Public Policy & Division of Social Science
ABOUT THE TALK
The paper starts by a reminder about the Europeanization of the British state and what the concept of the member state meant. It then focuses on the consequences of the Brexit on the organization of the state, its institutions, its government and its policies. It emphasizes that this process leads to a partial renationalization of political authority beyond the ubiquitous "take back control" rhetoric. Privileging an English reading centered on the Wesminster model of the unwritten constitution, and mobilizing reference to English nationalism, Conservative governments have used the Brexit to reinforce the centralization of the state supported by unionist rhetoric. Considering that the state is also a narrative, Part II shows how the Brexit challenges the British conception of the state. The departure from the European Union and the electoral successes of the conservative Brexiters, then give the opportunity to implement an original and contested state project, a hybrid of European, American, and even Singaporean states, at once more capitalist, more globalized, more organized by finance, and overall, more neoliberal but also more corrupt. But Europe is still very close.
Venue:
Room 3301 (Lift 17/18), Academic Building, HKUST
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82597400537
Patrick Le Galès, FBA, MAE, is CNRS Research Professor of Politics, sociology, and urban studies at Sciences Po Paris, Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics. He was the founding Dean of Sciences Po Urban School (2015-2022), the president of SASE (Society for Advanced Socio Economics), the editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. He is the current coeditor of the European Journal of Sociology/Archives Européennes de Sociologie and K.Wong Distinguished visiting Professor at HKBU. His work deals with comparative public policy, state restructuring, comparative urban governance of large metropolis, mobility and urban class making, political economy.
Recent Publications include: Reconfigurating European States in Crisis (with D.King, OUP, 2017); Que se Gobierna ? El caso de la ciudad de Mexico, (with V.Ugalde, Colejio de Mexico, 2018) Gouverner la métropole parisienne. (Presses de Sciences Po. 2020) ; “High priced metropolis as generators of inequality, a comparison between Paris, London, New York and San Francisco”, (with P.Pierson, Daedalus, 2019); « The rise of local politics, a global review », in Annual Review of Political Science, (vol 24, 2021). He co edits the "Handbook of comparative global urban studies" with Jenny Robinson to appear in june 2023. He is currently working on a book on the post Brexit british state.