In such a turbulent moment, the application of the austerity principles required an emphatic justifi cation. One of the most novel aspects of modern austerity was that, as an antidote to capitalist crisis, it could no longer dismiss or disregard the actors that were deemed responsible for that very crisis. Experts had to deal with public opinion, either through consensus or through coercion— or, most practically, through both. Th is constituted the dual strategy of austerity.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 818