The Idea of Austerity in British Politics, 2003–2013
| DOI | 10.1177/0032321717720376 |
| Published date | 01 May 2018 |
| Author | Nick Anstead |
| Date | 01 May 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321717720376
Political Studies
2018, Vol. 66(2) 287 –305
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0032321717720376
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The Idea of Austerity in British
Politics, 2003–2013
Nick Anstead
Abstract
Employing a dataset of 1843 think tank publications containing 37 million words, computer-assisted
text analysis 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.
Keywords
austerity, political ideas, computer-assisted text analysis, think tanks
Accepted: 3 April 2017
It was David Cameron, then leader of the Conservative opposition, who argued that the
United Kingdom was entering an ‘age of austerity’ following the 2007/2008 financial
crisis (Cameron, 2009). In the years since, British political debate seems to have become
polarised between a pro-austerity right and an anti-austerity left, with senior figures in the
Labour Party arguing that the Conservative austerity programme was ineffective and
harming the most disadvantaged in society (Darling, 2011: 309). This polarisation seem-
ingly culminated in 2015, when new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn defined his party as
‘anti-austerity’ (Corbyn, 2015). Polarisation is rarely this neat, however. The aim of this
article is to better understand the idea of austerity in British politics, how it rose to promi-
nence, how it is used across the political spectrum and how it relates to other ideas.
While ideas have long played a role in the study of politics, especially for those
employing historical methods (such as Barker, 1978; Freeden, 1978), recent years have
seen growing prominence for various analytical approaches that overtly try to use ideas
Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK
Corresponding author:
Nick Anstead, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political
Science, London WC2A 2AE, UK.
Email: n.m.anstead@lse.ac.uk
720376PSX0010.1177/0032321717720376Political StudiesAnstead
research-article2017
Article
288 Political Studies 66(2)
as a counterpoint to more positivist traditions. This development has gone under several
names, including the ideational turn (Blyth, 1997), discursive institutionalism (Schmidt,
2008), interpretivism (Bevir and Rhodes, 2003, chapter 2) and constructivism (Hay,
2006), as well as the study of paradigms (Hall, 1993), discourses (Hajer, 1993; Schmidt,
2001), narratives (Bacon, 2012; Boswell, 2013; Miskimmon et al., 2014), agenda setting
(Kingdon, 2014) and framing (Boin et al., 2009; Fischer, 2003). These approaches share
the view that ideas matter for understanding political phenomena. Building on this body
of work, this study examines the evolution of the idea of austerity, drawing on a dataset
of think tank publications from 2003 to 2013. This dataset offers a powerful tool for
understanding the evolving ideational landscape.
This article proceeds as follows. First, a theoretical section examines the claim that
ideas matter in political life and why this approach has proved to be particularly useful for
the research of financial crises. Second, the ‘Data and Methods’ section discusses the
value and limitations of think tank publications as a resource for ideational research, as
well as describes the computer-assisted text analysis (CATA) procedure. The empirical
section follows. Finally, a short conclusion examines the empirical and theoretical rami-
fications of this article’s findings.
Theorising the Role of Ideas in Political Life
A full review of the arguments made in the now extensive range of ideational literature is
beyond the scope of this article (for the best article-length summary, see Schmidt, 2008).
However, to operationalise the ideational approach of this study, it is worth making a few
observations about the arguments made in the contemporary ideational literature.
There are broadly two answers to the question of why ideas matter, differentiated by
whether they are treated as being causational or constitutive (Gofas and Hay, 2010: 4–6).
The causational mode treats ideas as being explanatory variables, as traditionally under-
stood. However, this approach is problematic, as it can lead to ideas being used as explan-
atory bridging devices, employed only when other approaches to analysis fail (Blyth,
2002: 17). Also, the causational approach has important definitional implications for what
constitutes an idea, necessitating that they are discrete and clearly identifiable. These dif-
ficulties have led to the alternative constitutive approach, wherein ‘ideas provide the dis-
cursive conditions of possibility of a social or political event, behaviour or effect’ (Gofas
and Hay, 2010: 4).
A constitutive approach recognises that ideas can be employed in different ways by
different types of political actors to communicate with different audiences at different
times. One important distinction is between ideas that are technical, offering policy pre-
scriptions, and those that are normative expressions of values (Schmidt, 2008: 306).
These types of ideas are not wholly discrete, however. While more technical discussions
may largely be the preserve of policy-makers, public opinion research suggests that elite
opinion can also have an impact on the wider public (Zaller, 1992: 13–22; Art, 2005,
ebook location 340–67).
There is also a growing recognition that ideas are unstable (Carstensen, 2011: 597–
602). Kingdon (2014, chapter 6) talks about the ideational ‘primeval soup’ from which
policy emerges through a continual process of recombination. Bevir and Rhodes, writ-
ing in the interpretivist tradition, argue that ideas evolve in response to changes in the
political world. Significantly, they also argue that an idea cannot exist in isolation but
instead is constructed through its interrelationship with other ideas. New ideas need to
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