They Destroy, We Create: The Anti-Austerity UK Alliance

Comparative European Politics, 2018

The article shows how the main regionalist parties in Scotland and Wales-the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru-have engaged with a populist discourse in the wake of the Great Recession. Based on a qualitative analysis of party manifestos and party-elite interviews, the article shows that the two parties have adopted a left-wing populist discourse, based on a critique of austerity policies. In this way, albeit from distinctively regionalist perspective, they performed roles very similar to that of other contemporary left-wing populist parties, particularly in Southern Europe. The Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru were able to frame their anti-austerity stances within a populist discourse because all three traditional British parties shared a preference for pro-austerity economic policies. Therefore, in Laclau's terms, the two 'Celtic' parties' attack on austerity constituted an open challenge to the hegemonic discourse of the British 'power bloc'. Analogous to the expansion of a right-wing anti-establishment protest in British politics (monopolized by the UKIP), the two parties (particularly the Scottish one) capitalized on the expansion of a left-wing populist area. This strategy has lately become less viable because Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party broke with the pro-austerity consensus among British elites.

The article shows how the main regionalist parties in Scotland and Wales— the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru—have engaged with a popu-list discourse in the wake of the Great Recession. Based on a qualitative analysis of party manifestos and party-elite interviews, the article shows that the two parties have adopted a left-wing populist discourse, based on a critique of austerity policies. In this way, albeit from distinctively regionalist perspective, they performed roles very similar to that of other contemporary left-wing populist parties, particularly in Southern Europe. The Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru were able to frame their anti-austerity stances within a populist discourse because all three traditional British parties shared a preference for pro-austerity economic policies. Therefore, in Laclau's terms, the two 'Celtic' parties' attack on austerity constituted an open challenge to the hegemonic discourse of the British 'power bloc'. Analogous to the expansion of a right-wing anti-establishment protest in British politics (monopolized by the UKIP), the two parties (particularly the Scottish one) capitalized on the expansion of a left-wing populist area. This strategy has lately become less viable because Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party broke with the pro-austerity consensus among British elites.

rs21, issue 3 (Spring 2015)

rs21.org.uk | Spring 2015 rs21.org.uk | Spring 2015 22

2017

This article investigates the nature of the conversation around austerity on Twitter during the 2015 general election in the UK. Specifically, it explores the kinds of messages referring to austerity, as well as the kinds of accounts involved (whether they referred to a private or public role on Twitter and in society) and their affiliation to politically or non-politically oriented organizations/bodies. The search on Twitter concerning the austerity topic (for the 39-day time period from 3 March to 8 May 2015) resulted in 16,015 tweets, which generally referred to austerity, and 11,146 tweets, which contained at least one relevant hashtag. While austerity was rarely mentioned by mainstream media accounts in the Twittersphere, this topic was widely discussed during the election campaign by private users. This could be seen as a limitation of agenda setting, since there is no correlation between the agenda set by the media on Twitter and the public discussion about it. However, we fo...

2017

This article investigates the nature of the conversation around austerity on Twitter during the 2015 general election in the UK. Specifically, it explores the kinds of messages referring to austerity, as well as the kinds of accounts involved (whether they referred to a private or public role on Twitter and in society) and their affiliation to politically or non-politically oriented organizations/bodies. The search on Twitter concerning the austerity topic (for the 39-day time period from 3 March to 8 May 2015) resulted in 16,015 tweets, which generally referred to austerity, and 11,146 tweets, which contained at least one relevant hashtag. While austerity was rarely mentioned by mainstream media accounts in the Twittersphere, this topic was widely discussed during the election campaign by private users. This could be seen as a limitation of agenda setting, since there is no correlation between the agenda set by the media on Twitter and the public discussion about it. However, we fo...

Developments in British Politics 10, 2016

Cambridge Journal of Economics, 2014

The first requirement for an understanding of contemporary economic and social life is a clear view of the relation between events and the ideas which interpret them. … Ideas are inherently conservative. They yield not to the attack of other ideas but … to the massive onslaught of circumstances with which they cannot contend'.

People, Place and Policy Online, 2019

In this article I pose three simple questions: (1) Were there major reforms in the fields of economic and social policies during the current economic crisis notwithstanding the common context of fiscal consolidation? Was there a break with the past and did countries embark on different and innovative policy developments – such as it may have been the case in the previous big crises? (2) Did political parties made a difference for the course of fiscal consolidation? Or was policy design mainly conditioned by the magnitude of fiscal and economic problems? (3) And provided the magnitude of fiscal and economic problems have been the pivotal factors, do political variables account for the variation of problem loads? Based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of 35 countries I present empirical evidence for these answers: (1) In sharp contrast to the crises of the late 19th century, of the 1930’s and the 1970’s, the crisis that started in 2007 did not lead to any major qualitative p...