‘Road to Nowhere’ and Complex Transitions: Why We Are Not Living in a Post-Neoliberal Age

The most recent global recession exposed significant cracks in the façade of neoliberalism, so much so that many viewed the post-recession era as one of renewed Keynesianism or perhaps a more amorphous ‘post-neoliberal era’. This article seeks to conceptualize the contemporary political climate by critiquing the concept of post-neoliberalism and arguing for a different understanding of the ‘strange non-death’ of neoliberalism. By analysing the protracted period of what has been called permanent austerity, we interpret the present period as a long transitory phase within which the crumbling of neoliberalism reduces political legitimacy of mainstream parties in the West, but does not seem to produce the passage to a new era. This protracted instability reflects the absence of viable political alternatives and seems to analytically assume the form of a ‘road to nowhere’ in which neoliberalization continues in a climate of exacerbated material hardships and weakening legitimation.