This chapter gives the historical and theoretical context for the rest of the book, taking the reader from the post-war period to the financial crisis, and explaining Jessop’s framework for considering the governance of welfare upon which the book’s analysis is based.

This chapter examines the situation in the 2010s, suggesting that Jessop’s framework for the governance of welfare needs to be updated in the light of what we have learned after the financial crisis. It presents an alternative framework that puts corporate power at the centre of its analysis, before it begins to explore the consequences of that framework for understanding where we are today.

This chapter explores human behaviour, taking into account what we have learned from behavioural research of the last 30 years, and so presents a framework for considering our behaviour in relation to economic and social policy that is rather different from the Enlightenment model upon which much economic and social policymaking is based. It presents us as being flawed individuals across a range of dimensions, and argues that these flaws much be taken into account in policymaking.

This chapter combines insights from the revised framework for the governance of welfare with those from behavioural approaches to social policy, to present a revised framework for considering economic and social policy in the 2010s, and upon which the case studies in the rest of the book will be based. It therefore demonstrates how corporate dominance and increasingly oligarchic governance combine with our behavioural flaws to create the situation we are in today.

This chapter examines, using the framework constructed by the book, how economic policy has developed from the 1970s onwards. It explores how corporate dominance has come about, and what the implications of this are for social policy. It suggests that we must take closer account of how economic governance is conducted, especially in relation to the dominance of financial services, if we are to improve social policy. It shows that different models of economic governance are possible, but they involve rethinking our current priorities considerably.

This chapter examines how health and healthcare policy have developed in the post-1970s’ period, making use of the framework developed in the book, and showing the grave inequalities that underpin our current approaches to health and healthcare. It shows the extent of corporate dominance in respect of our health and healthcare, and the dysfunctional consequences of this. It then presents an alternative view of what we can do to challenge these inequalities.

This chapter examines education and education policy, making use of the framework constructed in the book, and showing how corporate dominance and oligarchy are sustained through our education processes and structures. It suggests that a very different basis of education is possible, and demonstrates the dimensions of what this would look like.

This chapter explores social security policy, defined in wide terms, and how it has become increasingly conditional since the 1990s, adding to inequalities and blaming the most vulnerable for their predicaments in society. It presents an alternative view of social security that is more complex, but which has a far greater chance of meeting societal goals.