The idea of austerity in British politics, 2003-13

Anstead, Nick ORCID: 0000-0002-1090-5271 (2018) The idea of austerity in British politics, 2003-13. Political Studies, 66 (2). pp. 287-305. ISSN 0032-3217

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Abstract

Employing a dataset of 1,843 think tank publications containing 37 million words, Computer-assisted Text Analysis (CATA) was used to examine the idea of austerity in British politics between 2003 and 2013. Theoretically, the article builds on the ideational turn in political research. However, in contrast to much ideational work which argues that ideas are important at times of crisis because they can address uncertainty, this article argues that moments of crisis can lead to the reformulation of ideas. Empirically, this article demonstrates the transformation of the idea of austerity. Prior to the 2008 financial crisis, austerity was largely understood either in historical terms or as a practice applied in other countries. In the aftermath of the crisis, both the political right and left attempted to co-opt the idea of austerity for their own ends, combining it with various other ideational strands on which they have historically drawn.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://journals.sagepub.com/home/psx
Additional Information:	© 2017 The Author
Divisions:	Media and Communications
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform J Political Science > JA Political science (General) J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) > JN101 Great Britain
Date Deposited:	03 Apr 2017 11:55
Last Modified:	01 Oct 2024 03:27
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/72120

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