Neoliberalism, State-Corporate Power and Regulatory Failure

Anchored to rigorous research and careful evidence-based analysis, Rhiannon Bandiera’s assessment of prescription and non-prescription medicines regulation in Australia is as unflinching as it is compelling. Over the course of this book, she shows how and why existing regulatory approaches, built on a neoliberal foundation that is hard-wired to serve the economic self-interest of the pharmaceutical industry, have progressively disempowered both regulators and the public. Bandiera’s bold prescription for a radical re-think of how to put health at the centre of pharmaceutical regulation is a vital contribution that could not come at a better time. For scholars and public policy experts across the globe, this book will be an invaluable source of fresh ideas on how to embed the public interest in a broad range of regulatory regimes. Jennifer Quaid, Associate Professor, Civil Law Section, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, Canada This book brilliantly exposes how the failure of regulation in Australia’s medicines regulatory regime is undeniably bound up with neoliberal obsessions with “risk-based” and “responsive” regulation. The new forms of regulation have not been able to protect the public and rather have led to “regulatory disempowerment” of a regime that enables profit to triumph over people. The regulatory regime that has been consolidated during a period that Rhiannon Bandeira sharply describes as hegemonic governmentality is one in which the public interest might prevail on rare occasions, but only if this does not compromise the interests of the industry. A familiar story, yes, but one that we need detailed politically nuanced stories to instruct us. And the sophisticated critique of power that we find in this book is urgently needed in this age. If we are living through a period of wild conspiracy theories about Big Pharma, this book provides the antidote; one that presents a reasoned critique of vested interests, but does not hold back on pointing the finger at the state and the pharmaceutical industry. Rejecting the conceptual red herring of neo-liberal versions of ‘better regulation’ the book powerfully calls for a wider program of social transformation to reduce the harms of both medicines and regulatory failures. David Whyte, Professor of Climate Justice and Director of the Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice, Queen Mary University of London Rhiannon Bandiera’s book makes an important contribution to the field of state-corporate crime. By examining the intricate dynamics of neoliberalism in the everyday regulation of medicines, readers will no longer be content with solutions based primarily on individual and public empowerment. A highly recommended book for those seeking new solutions. Garry C. Gray, Associate Professor of Criminology and Sociology, University of Victoria, Canada This outstanding achievement significantly develops our understanding of ‘neo-liberalism’ via an impressively bold theoretical sophistication through which to view regulation, states and corporations. Its empirically rich focus on medicines reminds us that state-corporate power reaches into our bodies - and cannot be challenged through law but via socially transformative change. Steve Tombs, Emeritus Professor of Criminology, The Open University We tend to believe that public authorities work in the best interest of the public. Unfortunately, the stream of research on state-corporate crime documents that public authorities create rather than prevent convenient opportunity structures for deviant behavior, misconduct, and crime. The book by Rhiannon Bandiera is an important contribution to this stream of research. Petter Gottschalk, Professor, Department of Leadership and Organizational Behavior, BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway