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Ronald J. Angel, Architects of Austerity: International Finance and the Politics of Growth By Aaron Major Stanford University Press. 2014. 254 pages. $60.00 hardcover, Social Forces, Volume 94, Issue 4, June 2016, Page e102, https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sou105
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The recent dissolution of the French government by Prime Minister Manuel Valls reflects the growing sense at least in some circles in France that the new austerity policies and tax increases introduced by President François Hollande, a Socialist, to deal with the fiscal crisis threaten to push France, and indeed the entire Eurozone, back into recession. France is only one of several nations in which stringent austerity measures have been adopted. What is perhaps most surprising is that the political opposition to austerity has not been more strident. Hollande's approval ratings are at historic lows for French presidents, but he continues with his austerity program rather than with a more expansionary economic agenda aimed at dealing with France's serious unemployment problem. For the casual reader of the morning paper or the daily web surfer, specific individuals and governments, most notably Angela Merkel and Germany, are the driving force behind the push toward austerity. Most everyone is aware that other actors, including central banks and private financial interests, are also implicated, but the ultimate decision to embrace austerity over stimulus appears to be made by national governments in response to local manifestations of larger global fiscal crises.
