Alt-Finance. How the City of London bought democracy

par Marlène Benquet et Théo Bourgeron

Ouvrage paru chez Pluto Press, 2002. Version anglaise amplifiée de La Finance autoritaire, Raisons d’agir, 2021.

 

A clear analysis of the about-turn in the modern financial sector towards free market authoritarianism

Powerful financial forces have supported the neoliberal project since the 1980s to advance their interests; but there are now signs that these forces have a new face and a new strategy. The majority of the British finance sector threw its support behind Britain leaving the European Union, a flagship institution of neoliberalism. Beyond this counterintuitive move, what was really happening and why? Alt-Finance examines a new authoritarian turn in financialised democracies, focusing on the City of London, revealing a dangerous alternative political project in the making.

In a clash with traditional finance, the new behemoths of financial capital – hedge funds, private equity firms and real estate funds – have started to cohere around a set of political beliefs, promoting libertarian, authoritarian, climate-denying and Eurosceptic views. Protecting investments, supressing social dissent and reducing state interference are at the core of their mission for a new world order.

‘An unparalleled look into the class interests driving today’s anti-democratic insurgency and its links with the authoritarian libertarianism of the hard right. Ground-breaking’

Melinda Cooper is based at the Australian National University

 

By following the money, the authors provide indisputable evidence of these worrying developments. Through a clear analysis of the international dealings of this new authoritarian-libertarian regime, not just in Britain but in the US and Brazil, we can understand how our world is being shaped against our will by struggles between dominant groups.

 

‘Fascinating. Shows convincingly that Brexit was financed by hedge funds and alternative finance, and that their ultimate goal was to promote a new wave of financial deregulation and buy off our democratic institutions. A great piece of social sciences and a must-read’

Thomas Piketty, author of ‘Capital in the Twenty-First Century’

Introduction

1. The Big Money Behind Brexit
2. Second-Wave Finance vs. the European Union
3. From European Neoliberalism to Authoritarian Libertarianism
   Epilogue: The Drumbeat of War
   List of Tables
   Notes

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