Containing the Commodification of Citizens, 1960-2000: Policy Design and the Pre-History of Neoliberalism

• In Event: Neoliberalism, Austerity, and State Retrenchment.

Abstract

In constructing a system of social provision, American reformers and legislators were wary of the dangers of linking public funding to the care of citizens. While welfare states are often understood as projects of decommodification that insulate workers from market exploitation, programs may also reconfigure citizens as assets or opportunities for private providers. Conflicts and negotiations over the extent and character of these policy-mediated relationships between private organizations -- whether non-profit or for-profit -- have shaped the "infrastructural" character of the American state at the same time that they have created new markets and transformed the capacities of civic organizations to sustain democratic politics beyond social provision. Focusing on three policy domains marked by particularly strong concerns over the commodification of citizens and subjects -- education, health care, and criminal justice -- this analysis reconstructions how prior institutions and political negotiations inflected the pressures associated with privatization and neoliberal projects.

Author

• Elisabeth S. Clemens, University of Chicago