About the lecture
Gerhard’s PhD focused on the introduction of the norm of shareholder value in the company laws of European countries during the 1980s and 1990s. His recent research focuses on the return of the state as an interventionist – at times, authoritarian – economic actor. These two trends are often seen as opposites: the former a process of liberalisation of state coordinated economies; the latter, a backlash against globalisation.
So, during the past decades, are we simply witnessing a return to more state-led economies and hence a healthy correction to excessive neo-liberalisation and the emergence of authoritarian liberalism?
In his lecture, Gerhard will draw on his research to argue that – rather than a swing of the Polanyian pendulum – dis-embedding capitalism and the illiberal backlash constitute a dialectic movement that poses a fundamental challenge to the modern liberal order by increasing the risk of political entrepreneurs capturing the state for their private benefit rather than the public good.
Therefore, the return of the state may not be a return to a relatively benign post-war welfare state, but rather a return to a pre-modern form of personalised power used for private benefit. He will close his lecture by drawing lessons for the future of democracy as well as public outreach events.
About the lecturer
Professor Gerhard Schnyder holds a BA (Licence) in Political Science from the University of Lausanne, a Masters degree (Diplôme d’études approfondies) in Political Science from the Universities of Lausanne and Geneva, and a Masters in Social Science Data Analysis from the University of Essex. He completed his PhD in Political Science at the University of Lausanne in 2008.
Since 2007, Gerhard has been a Postdoctoral Researcher and then a Research Associate with the Centre for Business Research at the University of Cambridge. He then worked as a Research Fellow at SOAS University of London and the University of Bath. He was a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader at King’s College London (2009-17), before joining Loughborough University London on secondment. He took on the role of Director of the Institute for International Management and Entrepreneurship in 2019.
Gerhard has been involved in various scholarly societies, including the Swiss Political Science Association (SVPW / ASSP), serving as General Secretary for three years; and the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) where he was a Network Convenor (2012-22). Since then, he has been the organiser of the out-reach initiative, Social Science for the Real World (SS4RW).
For further information on this lecture, please contact the Events team.
