7 Euro-American capitalism, or the ‘neo-proprietarian’ ideology epitomised by Thatcher or Reagan, and leading to far-right identitarian or nativist politics, espoused a return to laissez-faire (ch. 6 China’s official ideology is “socialism with Chinese characteristics”, and these ‘characteristics’ happily include dictators and billionaires controlling its so called National “People’s” Congress (ch. 5 Post-Soviet Russia in general, and Putin in particular, follows an ideology that seeks to “restore Russia’s greatness” based on “hierarchy and verticality in both politics and economics”, mocking “Gorbachev’s egalitarian illusions and his obsession with saving socialism”, before Yeltsin and then oligarchs took charge (ch. 4 The European Union has, says Piketty, told a tale that “free competition and free circulation of goods and capital” (550) is enough for “prosperity and social harmony” (645). 3 The Soviet Union had an ideology of state ownership under a dictatorship “of” the proletariat that revolutionised a corrupt old order (ch. 16, 961) 2 Nineteenth century ideology ‘sacralized’ private property, promising ‘social stability’ and ‘individual emancipation’ if the state was laissez-faire. 1 “We live in an era”, writes Piketty, “that wants to see itself as postideological but is in reality saturated by ideology.” (ch. And inequality generates more ideology (3-4). These discourses create a “dominant narrative”.

Ideology (which is not always based on reason and evidence) tends to be a “range of contradictory discourses”.

In an ongoing cycle, inequality then feeds ideology.

7 By being dramatically overrepresented in the Standing Committee.ġ In Capital and Ideology, Thomas Piketty’s positive argument is that societies use ideology to justify (otherwise unjustified) inequality.

6 See also Balzer (2005) explaining Putin’s thesis, defended in 1997, was that Russian natural resour (.).

5 But there is also another dimension to the EU, according to the Court of Justice in Defrenne v Sabe (.).

4 See also Hamilton and Deakin (2015, 288-293) on Pashukanis’ early Soviet legal theory.

10, 434 referring to the end of laissez-faire.

2 One might add, pretending we are postideological, or neutral, may also be ideological.

1 Piketty uses “‘ideology’ in a positive and constructive sense to refer to a set of a priori plausib (.).

Capital and ideology