Austerity

Austerity in an independent Scotland?

Stephen Richard — Sat, 23 Oct 2021 06:33:54 +0000

Austerity in an independent Scotland? Stephen Richard Sat, 10/23/2021 - 07:33

Author or Creator

Open Democracy

Scotland can either accept austerity, or it can raise tax levels. So, if it wanted to maintain spending at current levels without transfers from the rest of the UK, it could. Nobody knows for sure. It is very likely there would be a temporary downturn. There is no doubt that there will be uncertainty, and possibly several years where we will struggle to boost the economy, but it should be noted that all of the income, and the assets of Scotland, (yes, the oil too), will be available to Scotland, and some of the cuts could readily be made in areas that arguably need to be cut.

Keywords

Austerity

Economic policy

Political Activism and Agnecy under Austerity and Brexit

Stephen Richard — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 09:55:14 +0000

Political Activism and Agnecy under Austerity and Brexit

Primary Author or Creator

Tom Montgomery

Stephen Richard Wed, 10/06/2021 - 10:55

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Maria Grasso

Alternative Published Date

2019

Category

Economy

Type of Resource

book

Length (Pages, words, minutes etc...)

14pp

Fast Facts

A study of activism against austerity in Britain from the financial crisis of 2008 through the Brexit vote of 2016. It finds that austerity has been a key factor in creating new dividing lines in British society and intensifying old divisions.

More details

A distinctive and original analysis of how the politics of the UK and the lives of British citizens have evolved in the first decades of the twenty-first century, this book provides an interdisciplinary critical examination of the roots, ideology and consequences of austerity politics, the Brexit vote and the rise of populist politics in Britain. Bringing together case studies and perspectives from an array of international researchers across the social sciences, it dissects the ways that the UK has become increasingly contested with profound differences of geography, generation, gender, 'race' and class, and considers agency as a key concept to understand the links between austerity and Brexit.

pp 45-58 in: Contested Britain: Brexit, Austerity and Agency

edited by Marius Guderjan and Hugh Mackay

Resource Address (URL)

https://uk.bookshop.org/books/contested-britain-brexit-austerity-and-agency/978…

Keywords

Austerity

Political participation

Language English

Contesting the austerity and “welfare reform” narrative of the UK Government: Forging a social democratic imaginary in Scotland

Stephen Richard — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 09:36:16 +0000

Contesting the austerity and “welfare reform” narrative of the UK Government: Forging a social democratic imaginary in Scotland

Primary Author or Creator

Jay Wiggan

Stephen Richard Wed, 10/06/2021 - 10:36

Category

Economy

Social welfare

Fast Facts

The Scottish government fuses nationalism with social wage and social investment concepts. It conjures up images of a prosperous, community led, egalitarian welfare state as a future reality. It recuperates “welfare” as a collective endeavour. It describes austerity as a poor distribution of resources between groups and within the UK as the “problem”.

More details

Purpose

The “welfare reform” narrative of successive Conservative-led UK Government emphasises public spending reductions, individual responsibility and strengthening of benefit conditionality. The purpose of this paper is to cast light on how this narrative is challenged and disrupted by the Scottish Government through their articulation of a social democratic welfare state imaginary.

Design/methodology/approach

The study draws together a decentred governance perspective that emphasises ideational tradition for understanding (re)construction of governance (Bevir, 2013, p. 27) with critical discourse analysis to examine how welfare interpretations/representations are carried into the policy and public arena. The Scottish Government documents are deconstructed to interrogate the ideas and form of their emergent discourse and its relation to the independence referendum and welfare governance reform.

Findings

Responding to changing socio-economic contexts and welfare governance, the Scottish Government has developed a discourse of modernisation rooted in British and Scandinavian social democratic traditions. Fusing (civic) nationalism with social wage and social investment concepts, they conjure up imaginaries of a prosperous, solidaristic, egalitarian welfare state as a feasible future reality, recuperating “welfare” as a collective endeavour and positioning a maldistribution of power/resources between groups and constituent countries of the UK as the “problem”.

Originality/value

The paper is of value to those interested in how changes to centralised-hierarchical welfare governance can open new spaces for actors at different levels of government to articulate counter-hegemonic discourses and practices. Its originality lies in the analysis of how the Scottish Government has reworked social democratic traditions to weave together a welfare imaginary that directly contests the problem-solution narrative of successive Conservative-led UK Governments.

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy

paywall

Resource Address (URL)

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJSSP-04-2016-0050/full/html

Keywords

Austerity

Democracy

social welfare

Language English

Left-wing regionalist populism in the ‘Celtic’ peripheries: Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party’s anti-austerity challenge against the British elites

Stephen Richard — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 09:22:11 +0000

Left-wing regionalist populism in the ‘Celtic’ peripheries: Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party’s anti-austerity challenge against the British elites

Primary Author or Creator

Emanuele Massetti

Stephen Richard Wed, 10/06/2021 - 10:22

Date Published

Mon, 10/22/2018 - 12:00

Category

Economy

Type of Resource

Academic Paper

Length (Pages, words, minutes etc...)

17pp

Fast Facts

This article shows that the SNP and Plaid Cymru have adopted a left-wing populist discourse, based on a critique of austerity policies.

More details

Comparative European Politics 2018, volume 16, pages 937–953. Paywall

Resource Address (URL)

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41295-018-0136-z

Keywords

Austerity

Politics

Scottish National Party

Language English

Nationalism and the politics of austerity: comparing Catalonia, Scotland, and Québec

Stephen Richard — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 09:15:33 +0000

Nationalism and the politics of austerity: comparing Catalonia, Scotland, and Québec

Primary Author or Creator

Daniel Beland

Stephen Richard Wed, 10/06/2021 - 10:15

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Andre Lecours

Date Published

Tue, 12/17/2019 - 12:00

Category

Economy

Public Finance

Type of Resource

Academic Paper

Length (Pages, words, minutes etc...)

18pp

Fast Facts

This analysis of the impact of austerity on nationalism stresses the role of blame as it interacts with political institutions and fiscal pressures.

More details

National Identities Volume 23, 2021 - Issue 1, pp 41-57. Paywall

Resource Address (URL)

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14608944.2019.1660312

Keywords

Language English

The SNP must rethink its economic model for an independent Scotland

Stephen Richard — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 08:45:14 +0000

The SNP must rethink its economic model for an independent Scotland

Primary Author or Creator

Laurie Macfarlane

Stephen Richard Wed, 10/06/2021 - 09:45

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Open Democracy

Date Published

Tue, 10/27/2020 - 12:00

Category

Economy

Currency

Type of Resource

Assessment report

Fast Facts

A critique of the Growth Commission's report. "Far from being an asset to the independence cause, the Growth Commission is its biggest liability. It’s time, as we say, ‘tae think again’."

Resource Address (URL)

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/snp-must-rethink-its-economic-model…

Keywords

Language English

Scotland, Brexit and Broken Promise of Democracy

Stephen Richard — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 18:02:19 +0000

Scotland, Brexit and Broken Promise of Democracy

Primary Author or Creator

Klaus Stolz

Stephen Richard Tue, 10/05/2021 - 19:02

Category

Independence

Fast Facts

The perception of a democratic deficit began in the Thatcher premiership, long before Brexit. Scottish self government came to be positively linked with European intergation.

More details

A chapter from Contested Britain: Brexit, Austerity and Agency, edited by Marius Guderjan and Hugh Mackay.

Resource Address (URL)

https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=cGXXDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT181&dq=W…

Keywords

Political participation

Austerity

Democracy

Devolution

Language English

Would an independent Scotland have to keep the pound and cut public spending?

Stephen Richard — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 19:37:39 +0000

Would an independent Scotland have to keep the pound and cut public spending?

Primary Author or Creator

Joël Reland

Stephen Richard Tue, 09/28/2021 - 20:37

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Full fact

Date Published

Fri, 06/01/2018 - 12:00

Category

Currency

Public Finance

Type of Resource

Fact check

Fast Facts

A report suggests an independent Scotland would have to make public expenditure reduction. he report actually says that public spending could continue to grow. This does depend on sufficient growth in the economy after independence.

Resource Address (URL)

https://fullfact.org/economy/would-independent-scotland-have-keep-pound-cut-pub…

Keywords

Currency

Austerity

Language English