5:30pm (BST) / 6:30pm (MESZ)
Bernhard Rieger (Leiden)
The promotion of neoliberalism ranks prominently among the charges levelled against Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder. Rather than protect citizens from hostile market forces, their governments stoked social polarization by intentionally exposing society to the play of supply and demand, or so critics past and present have maintained. To what extent did Blair's New Labour and Schröder's Red-Green administration succeed in combining social progressivism with pro-market agendas? Focusing on the deeply controversial welfare-to-work policies both countries implemented around the turn of the millennium, this talk highlights the achievements, limits, and social consequences of progressive policy in neoliberal times.