This interview was conducted in English.

Find this interview and its explanatory dossier at https://www.diagrammes.fr/en/folders/revolutionary-conservatism 

Duration: 1h56

Melinda Cooper is currently professor in the School of Sociology at the Australian National University. She earned her Doctorate from the University of Paris VIII (Vincennes-St-Denis) in 2001. She is the author of Life as Surplus: Biotechnology and Capitalism in the Neoliberal Era (2008), Clinical Labour: Tissue Donors and Research Subjects in the Global Economy (with Catherine Waldby, 2014), Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism (2017) and Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance (2024).

Her most recent book Counterrevolution exposes the logic of neoliberal public finance, which mandates crushing austerity for wage earners alongside extravagant fiscal and monetary generosity for asset holders. The book demonstrates how this dual imperative has transformed the DNA of capitalism, turning capital gains into the primary profit form and, by that token, precipitating the advent of a new “gilded age.”

In this video, Melinda Cooper’s applies her incisive analysis to the most recent transformations of capitalism. As the neoliberal counterrevolution reaches its limits, what lies ahead is neither a return to Keynesianism nor a break with a capitalism, but a new phase in the mutation of neoliberalism: one marked by the unprecedented concentration of capital in the hands of a new generation of “robber barons.” The multinationals of the past are being replaced by former startups, now publicly traded yet still entirely controlled by their founders.

To maintain their unchecked power, these oligarchs rely on the backing of political leaders such as Donald Trump, who are likewise committed to dismantling the counterpowers that define the rule of law. This is what Melinda Cooper calls revolutionary conservatism: a project that blends nostalgia for a mythical past with a cult of the visionary entrepreneur, in pursuit of the final liquidation of democracy.

An essential analysis for understanding the political stakes of our time.

CHAPTERS:

00:00:00 – Introduction to Revolutionary conservatism

00:05:32 - (Chap.1) All the President’s men

00:13:09 - (Chap.2) Hybrid companies

00:35:29 - (Chap.3) On patrimonial capitalism

00:49:08 - (Chap.4) Cannibalization of the Republican Party

00:57:42 - (Chap.5) The little guy vs the fat cats

01:13:30 - (Chap.6) The social neoliberalism of the Democratic party

01:26:30 - (Chap.7) Hegemony trouble

01:36:28 - (Chap.8) Project 2025 and the destruction of the administrative state

Interview by Michel Feher

Directed by Thierry Corroyer and Meredith Williams

Produced by Florence Mention and Aurélie Windels

Dossier: Alexandra Bucher

Visual Research : Sophie Liner

Music by Laz Lo, Eeryskies, Damiens Simons

Voice : Amanda Bay

Podcast production : Deborah Le Grand

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