In this episode I talk to Professor Emma Bell of Savoie University in France. 

We explore the idea of soft authoritarianism, and how this concept can be used to examine British politics in the 20th century through to present day.

 The discussion covers:

• What is Authoritarianism?
• Hayek v Keynesianism in Economics
• Positive and negative freedom: freedom FROM and freedom TO
• On the political right: fear of communism and encroachment of welfare state in private lives
• On the left: critique of ideologies which control behaviour eg sexuality, family structure; and critique of welfare state in failing to liberate people at the bottom of society
• Thatcher and after: return to Hayek and freedom from the state -> New Labour and widening social control  -> Cameron's Big Society

Emma is Professor of Contemporary British Politics at Savoie Mont-Blanc University in  Chambéry, France. She has published widely in the UK and France on authoritarianism in the British State in journals such as the Observatoire de la Société Britannique, Race and Class, Theoretical Criminology and Socialism and Democracy. She is also a founding editor of the journal Justice, Power and Resistance. Her current research focuses on new forms of democracy and challenges to state authoritarianism. 

Emma has written 2 books (links are affiliate marketing):

• Criminal Justice  and Neoliberalism (Palgrave, 2011)
• Soft Power and Freedom under the Coalition (Palgrave, 2015)