Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Document Notes
Exploring the connection between economic recession and austerity measures. While also seeing a cause and effect of how, cutting back on public stuff hurts people, the government is seen as hurting people and not solving problems that affect them, and they in turn look at fringe or hard-right parties to help them. Why is there a growing popularity of hard-right parties in power around the world? questions
Highlights
id741004475
the UK stands out as one of the worst economic performers in the rich world. The only economy currently suffering as much as ours is Germany’s, which contracted by 0.3 percent in 2023 and is estimated to have grown by a meager 0.3 percent in 2024.
id741004421
ne striking factor the two countries share is a rigid commitment to fiscal austerity and a long-term refusal among policymakers to countenance any increase in public investment.
id741004516
Ever since the financial crisis, the country’s elites have embedded a commitment to balancing the country’s budget across all political and economic institutions. In 2009, this commitment became a legal requirement, enshrined in the constitution as the so-called “debt brake.” Germany’s political class has made its approach to fiscal policy into a moral crusade, contrasting the country’s responsibility and frugality with the alleged profligacy of the southern European states. The result has been a zealous commitment to austerity that even the Financial Times (FT) has described as “bizarre.”
id741004527
leaving German infrastructure in a perilous state and in “dire need” of greater funding.
id741004699
what little investment the UK does undertake is extremely unequally distributed, exacerbating a regional inequality problem that has made the country one of the most regionally unequal in Europe. Research from IPPR North has showed that the north of England is systematically starved of investment.
id741004732
If the UK economy is to transition to net zero, huge amounts of investment will be required in improving public transport infrastructure, expanding renewable energy generation, and improving home insulation. Interventions like retrofitting houses to increase fuel efficiency would create jobs, boost growth, and help to reduce emissions — as well as helping households to save money. What’s more, longer-term investments such as increasing funding for the research and development of green technologies could significantly improve productivity. And research from Positive Money has shown that reducing our dependence on fossil fuels would help to curtail inflation.
id741004755
In Germany, the political consequences of permanent austerity have been disastrous. With no meaningful difference between the country’s main political parties on macroeconomic policy, voters are being pushed to the fringes.
id741004764
It is impossible to understand the rise of the far right without reference to the widespread anger at a political system rightly seen as corrupt and unaccountable by the vast majority of people.