Turning to contemporary politics, this chapter explores austerity as the primary mechanism of managing capitalist crisis. Tracing the roots of austerity to the interwar era, it discusses the core logic of austerity as a mechanism of taming working-class militancy and suppressing alternatives to capitalism, particularly during periods of declining legitimacy. Reframing austerity as a class-based political project rather than a policy doctrine of balanced budgets, it shows how both liberal and fascist political elites, under a veneer of technocratic authority, have embraced austerity as a means of shoring up capitalist legitimacy. The chapter discusses how austerity can produce its own crises of legitimacy, and the continued relevance of austerity for understanding the post-2008 period and the rise of the global far-right.