Rolling Back the Market: Economic Dogma and Political Choice

A range of economic dogmas stressing the necessity of continuous economic growth, liberalization of trade and capital flows, and the reduction of social welfare underpin the reform programs governments encourage to roll back the functions and expenditures of the state. This book provides a comprehensive critique of these and similar dogmas, exposing their very weak basis in economic theory and their perverse effect upon human welfare and public services. This refreshingly broad and lucid account shows how it is now the market which urgently needs to be "rolled back" and prevented from further dominating politics and society.