Anti-Fascist Economics

What would it mean to create an economics that guarantees dignity for all? For decades, we were told that free markets would safeguard democracy. Instead, we are now living in an age of emergencies as the cost of living rises, democratic institutions weaken and the far right gains ground across the world. But it doesn't have to be this way. Drawing on history, political economy and her own experience at the centre of recent inflation debates, economist Isabella Weber argues that the rise of today's authoritarian movements is not an accident. It is rooted in an economic order that has treated livelihoods as expendable while elevating markets above democratic choice. This book offers a bold alternative. Recovering the forgotten post-war ambition of an economics committed to 'never again', Weber argues that governments should secure affordable essentials, guarantee dignified work and build resilient economies capable of confronting climate change, technological disruption and geopolitical conflict. In place of market fundamentalism, she sets out a practical programme for an economy organised around human dignity rather than profit fundamentalism. Both a clear-eyed diagnosis of our age and an inspiring blueprint for renewal, Anti-Fascist Economics shows that the future of democracy depends on choosing an economy that serves all of us.

Isabella Weber is an associate professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an associate in research at the Fairbank Center, Harvard University. The author of the prize-winning How China Escaped Shock Therapy, she works on policy responses to inflation and has advised policy-makers in the US, Germany, Europe and Latin America. She has been recognized by TIME Magazine on their 100 Next list.