The government of bankruptcy: Neoliberal rationality and financial education in Portugal

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the core principles of financial education programmes and, more specifically, their promotion and diffusion in Portugal through the so-called National Financial Education Plan (PNFF). According to the theoretical approach defined by neo-Foucaltian studies on governmentality, the main dimensions of PNFF are examined in order to identify the plan’s a) diagnosis of the financial situation in Portugal; b) its conceptualization of the moral and cognitive deficits of the Portuguese in the domain of financial issues; c) its proposal to solve these deficits; d) its model of society articulated by market mechanisms; and e) its ideal of financial citizen.