The hegemony constraints in the neoliberal years of capitalism

Abstract

Policy regimes are the historical forms that the state and the respective public policies assume when a given class coalition exercises a clear ideological hegemony. Public policies face not only economic and political constraints but also “hegemony constraints”. The three types of constraints are compelling, but only the non-compliance of the first and the second leads to the malfunctioning of the economic or of the political system; rejecting the third constraint just means that the interests of the hegemonic coalition will not be satisfied. For this coalition it is strategic that people accept as real constraints what are just hegemony constraints. The 30 Neoliberal Years of Capitalism were a policy regime, which, since 2008, faces a major, probably final, crisis.