Shared Prosperity: Why the EU Needs a New Imaginary of Political Economy

Organised by

• Department of Law

Abstract:

In this book manuscript, Marija asks the question, what comes after neoliberalism in the EU? Through extensive discourse analysis she explores the transformations in the EU’s understanding of consumption, corporation, technology and industrial policy, suggesting that in recent years the EU has hesitantly embarked on a path towards a new imaginary of political economy – 'shared prosperity' - pointing to collective action and the sharing of power and resources (rather than ‘markets’ and private gain) as a new route to prosperity. However, delivering on shared prosperity is a race against time. The emerging imaginary has to compete with the resurrected neoliberal route to prosperity, which despite being exhausted both as a strategy of prosperity and as (integrative) ideology, has recently regained traction - threatening to further erode the already weak trust in democratic institutions. Unless the EU succeeds in developing timely an alternative to the neoliberal imaginary of prosperity, that can provide a credible prospect of a liveable future whilst addressing the fallout from decades of privatisation, the real alternative to the imaginaries of prosperity - nativist imaginaries – will grow stronger, as these imaginaries offer a soothing response to the loss of the future: a return to glorious past.