1 The Heartlands of Neoliberalism and the Rise of the Austerity State Bob Jessop Pre-copy-edited version of Chapter 35 in S. Springer, K. Birch, and J. MacLeavy, eds., Handbook of Neoliberalism (London: Routledge, 2016), ISBN 9781138844001. My chapter explores the genealogy and development of neoliberalism in its heartlands. What happens here is closely entangled with events, processes and forces elsewhere in the world market, the world of states and global society. I first consider the meaning of heartlands and note some paradoxes in its use in geopolitics, geoeconomics and critical studies of neoliberalism. Second I present a typology of neoliberalism, note its hybrid forms, and offer a periodization for its instantiation in the ‘heartlands’, where its dominant form is principled neoliberal regime shifts. The best-known cases are the United States and United Kingdom. I then note that pragmatic neoliberal policy adjustments can cumulate, through ratchet-like effects, to produce de facto regime shifts. Here I briefly consider Germany, the leading example given its central position in the European Union. I conclude with brief comments on the implications of such regime shifts in the heartlands for (1) core-periphery relations in the heartlands themselves, associated with its intensification of uneven development and (2) the overall dynamic of a world market organized in the shadow of neoliberalism. Where are the Heartlands? This term has five meanings that are relevant here. First, for the British geopolitical theorist, Halford MacKinder (1904), it denotes the Eurasian Heartland, which comprises nearly 60% of the world land area. MacKinder claimed that ‘Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; who rules the Heartland commands the World- Island; who rules the World-Island commands the world’ (1919: 106, italics removed). Beyond the heartland, he argued, lies a less important hemisphere (comprising the Americas and Australia) plus outlying smaller islands (including, for example, Japan and the UK) and the oceans. To limit Eurasian power, it was necessary to fragment the central landmass and control its rimlands, especially, its western and eastern poles. The US achieved this after 1945 thanks to the Iron Curtain (and, later, the Sino- Soviet split), through its hegemony in Western Europe and Japan, and its dominance brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by Lancaster E-Prints