The hollowing out of the state and the impoverishment of the public sphere

Confidence in Britain’s democracy is at a low point. A generation-long neoliberal ascendancy wants the state to keep out of its way. At the same time, a withdrawal from the public world into the private reduces our social capital and leaves us feeling vulnerable. That vulnerability can be nudged towards fear and then hostility to those ‘not like us’. Populists build on the failings of our democracy and on the anxieties of those isolated from the polity. What can be done? Can government challenge, rather than just facilitate, capitalist accumulation and prioritise building solidarity to address isolation?