Tracing the Political: Depoliticisation, Governance and the State (New Perspectives in Policy and Politics)

"Over the past two decades politicians have delegated many political decisions to expert agencies or 'quangos', and portrayed the associated issues, like monetary or drug policy, as technocratic or managerial. At the same time an increasing number of important political decisions are being removed from democratic public debate altogether, leading many commentators to argue that they are part of a 'crisis of democracy', marking the 'end of politics'. Tracing the political uses a broad range of international case studies to chart the politicising and depoliticising dynamics that shape debates about the future of governance and the liberal democratic state. The book is part of the New perspectives in policy and politics series, and will be an important text for students of politics and policy, as well as researchers and policy makers."-- Provided by publisher TRACING THE POLITICAL Contents Notes on contributors 1. Depoliticisation, governance and the state Introduction The concept of the political The age of neutralisations and depoliticisations The state of exception Towards a new ‘neutral’ domain? 2. Rethinking depoliticisation: beyond the governmental Introduction Mapping depoliticisation Three faces of depoliticisation Depoliticisation and (re)politicisation 3. Depoliticisation, governance and political participation Introduction Depoliticisation: deconstructing Flinders and Wood Modes of governance and depoliticisation Politicisation, depoliticisation and repoliticisation Conclusion 4. Depoliticisation: economic crisis and political management Introduction Capital, crisis and the state Depoliticisation as governing strategy Depoliticisation strategies in Britain before, during and after the financial crisis Conclusion: the limits of depoliticisation and the political crisis of the state 5. Repoliticising depoliticisation: theoretical preliminaries on some responses to the American fiscal and Eurozone debt crises Introduction Politics and economics in the North Atlantic Financial Crisis Conclusions 6. Rolling back to roll forward: depoliticisation and the extension of government Introduction Depoliticisation: bringing government back in Neo-liberalism as a political project Neo-liberal governmentality: understanding government Understandings of depoliticisation in the governmentality literature Reframing depoliticisation and politicisation Conclusion 7. (De)politicisation and the Father’s Clause parliamentary debates (De)politicisation and the Father’s Clause parliamentary debates The spectrum of (de)politicisation The politics of human reproduction and arts Parliamentary debates on the introduction of the Father’s Clause, 1984–90 Parliamentary debates on the removal of the Father’s Clause, 2007–08 Conclusion 8. Politicising UK energy: what ‘speaking energy security’ can do Introduction Depoliticisation, politicisation and speaking security Speaking security, popular response and national agendas Processes of politicisation: deliberation and political capacity Conclusions 9. Global norms, local contestation: privatisation and de/politicisation in Berlin Introduction Constraints and contingencies in contemporary governance: understanding depoliticisation Privatisation and the city: no alternatives and contestation Depoliticisation in Berlin Politicisation in Berlin: from partial privatisation to partial remunicipalisation Between constraints and opportunities: assessing the BWB case Outlook 10. Depoliticisation as process, governance as practice: what did the ‘first wave’ get wrong and do we need a ‘second wave’ to put it right? Introduction One’s enemies’ enemies ... and one’s friends Rethinking depoliticisation The link to political participation Depoliticisation in and through crisis Neologising depoliticisation Depoliticised governance as governmentality Second wave or second generation? Towards an empirical reappraisal of depoliticisation Conclusion. Thinking big: the political imagination Invoking Schmitt In praise of diversity Thinking big Index __Tracing the Political__ uses a broad range of international case studies to chart the politicising and depoliticising dynamics that shape debates about the future of democracy and governance in the neoliberal state.