Social regulation after Fordism:regulation theory, neo-liberalism and the global-local nexus

Abstract

This paper uses the analytical tools of regulation theory to analyse critically claims about the emergence of post-Fordism. It is argued that prevailing notions of post-Fordism are inconsistent with the central tenets of regulatioist method, devaluing as they dothe critical importance of social regulation and the ways in which a putative post-Fordist economy may be macro-economically pieced together. Rather than representing the basis for a renewed period of sustained growth, flexibility and its corollary, neo-liberalism, are argued to represent the politics and economics of sustained capitalist crisis. Only when the systemic instability at the global level can be regulated can we expect a durable replacement for Fordism. This requires not only a new macro-economic regime but, crucially, a new ‘institutional fix’.