ABSTRACT
In this chapter development ethics and the regulatory role of states in Europe – past and present – are contrasted in relation to challenges of human development and social equality. The state’s role and analytical traditions were positively developmental in two eras in the middle of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These epochs gave rise to two ethically premised analytical traditions and political phenomena: the developmental state and the welfare state. The sentiments and collective foundations for public policy forged during those periods are contrasted with the language and public policies to enforce market neutrality in contemporary Europe, reinforced by the 2008 crisis. Attention is given to the consequences of the short-term fiscal framework drawn up within the EU for the form and impact of domestic austerity on public sector fragmentation and the rise of a more punitive state. In this context, I consider lessons that can be drawn from long-run regulatory differences between European states, which are at either end of the spectrum in terms of regulatory approaches, being Britain and Nordic states. Looking at the ramifications for public capabilities of contemporary austerity arranged to support the financial sector, I consider regulatory moves that would be involved in imagining a transition towards a modern, more humanist state.
