Constitutionalizing Austerity: Taking the Public out of Public Policy

Abstract Nothwithstanding their failure to achieve stated objectives, austerity policies have been pursued with persistence. Rather than failures prompting reconsideration, there is a clear trend to render austerity policies a permanent, constitutionalized response to economic challenges ‘for all seasons’. This article links the drive to austerity with the ‘new constitutionalism’ literature which depicts procedurally the removal of important decisions from the realm of liberal democratic politics and their re‐location behind impenetrable and unaccountable barriers; and, in terms of content, embed neoliberal practices and policies, and the power relations that underpin them, as ‘normal’. This takes the public out of public policy making with negative consequences for democratic governance.