Roca et al 2018: Challenging Austerity

## Introduction: SMs and radical politics in the Europ periphery - a world-systems analysis

* p1: explicitly anti-neoliberal narrative: austerity policies in order to dismantle welfare state, transfer private debt to the public, and make profits for "oligarchs"
* p1/2: book is about: old and esp. newly popular challengers to austerity
	+ first, confrontational (anti-state in GR, anti-representative-democr in ES)
	+ then, institutionalized/statist (Syriza, Podemos, 5 Stelle, Bloco de Esquerda)
* p4: Agency/Political strategies act within an economic limitations. This framework is given by economic position in world system: Southern Europe as semi-periphery, Northern Europe as centre (World-Systems-Theory by Wallerstein)
* p6: accumulating capital needs investment opportunities, e.g. in...
	+ productive industry (not enough!)
	+ new places (e.g. developing countries)
	+ infrastructure (because these long-term big investments can swallow a lot of capital)
	+ fictitious values (speculative bubbles)
	+ construction (also 'space production' and 'speculative' in a way; for tourism, private housing, etc.; paradigmatic for Southern Europe)
* 'Understanding social movements'...
	+ (please continue on page 7)
	+ ...

## Chapter 1: Radical Left in Portugal and Spain

#### Summary

1. describes transitions and course of radical left groups in POR and ES;
2. main argument: radical left rise and fall depends on international developments
3. criticizes rad left (unrealistic, violence failed, electoral failure because sectarian, and POS unfavorable)
4. STYLE: very bad (English mistakes make it hard to read/understand) (in a published book!)
5. ARGUMENTS: somewhat superficial, but usually okay; lots of facts about radical left organizations (founding, activities, demise)

##### Spain-Portugal parallels until transition:

* authoritarianism starts in 30s ( v GR: 1967 Cold War coup)
* 1960s: growth...
* ...and liberalization:
	+ ES: 1967 Ley Orgánico del Estado: "organic democracy"
	+ POR: 1968 primavera marcelista
* early 70s: protests and internal division -> demise

##### transition, differences:

* POR: 1974, Apr 25, carnation revolution -> 1,5 years unstable revolutionary period ("PREC")
* ES: 1974/5 mobilization (parallel to POR revoluton) repressed
* POR as bad example of unstable and radical-left-dominated revolutionary process => (negotiated?) transition instead of overthrow, continuities and amnesties accepted
* transitions converge by end of 1975: moderate governments

##### after transition, parallels again:

* main left-wing party become social democratic (POR: PS founded in Germany, with SPD help; ES: PSOE refounded, too)
* lots of different radical left-wing political groups, convergence with demise of USSR:
	+ POR: Bloco de Esquerda, 1999: from 2,5% up to 10% in 2009
	+ ES: Izquierda Unida, 1986
* violence of some groups discredited the radical left (see Baby 2012, for their violence)
* radical left exhausted after fighting dictatorship, gaining democracy, battling post-transition reformism and postmodern whateverism
* radical left parties without seats before 1999, except UDP (por). pro-Soviet Spanish parties, Basque radical left (p37)