Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Introduction: Mapping Economic Liberalization Discourse in Western Europe

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Politics of Economic Liberalization

  • 239 Accesses

Abstract

The first chapter outlines the task of the study, which is a mapping of the different discourses inherent in six major European democracies. To this aim, it introduces the theoretical model that will guide the following elaborations on the unity in substance and the differences in structure of public discourses. Sketched in very bold strokes, it is argued that the similarities between discourses are to be traced in the common thread provided by globalization and post-industrialization, whereas the differences can be explained by virtue of the distinct institutional arrangements that the countries in question have developed over time.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adam, S., and H. Kriesi. 2007. The Network Approach. In Theories of the Policy Process, ed. P.A. Sabatier, 129–154. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, C.J. 1978. The Logic of Public Problems: Evaluation in Comparative Policy Research. In Comparing Public Policies, ed. D.E. Ashford, 19–38. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartolini, S. 2005. La formation des clivages. Revue internationale de politique comparée 12 (1): 9–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Béland, D. 2009. Ideas, Institutions, and Policy Change. Journal of European Public Policy 16 (5): 701–718.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Béland, D., and R.H. Cox. 2011. Introduction: Ideas and Politics. In Ideas and Politics in Social Science Research. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beramendi, P., and C.J. Anderson. 2008. Democracy, Inequality, and Representation: A Comparative Perspective. New York, NY: Russel Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, S. 2000. Globalization and Politics. American Political Science Review 3 (1): 43–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Block, F. 2007. Understanding the Diverging Trajectories of the United States and Western Europe: A Neo-Polanyian Analysis. Politics & Society 35 (1): 3–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blyth, M. 2002. Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bonoli, G. 2003. Social Policy Through Labor Markets: Understanding National Differences in the Provision of Economic Security to Wage Earners. Comparative Political Studies 36 (9): 1007–1030.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonoli, G., and A. Mach. 2000. Switzerland: Adjustment Politics Within Institutional Constraints. In Welfare and Work in the Open Economy, ed. F.W. Scharpf and V.A. Schmidt, 131–173. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, J.L. 2004. Institutional Change and Globalization. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, J.L., and O.K. Pedersen. 2001. The Rise of Neoliberalism and Institutional Analysis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dutt, P., and D. Mitra. 2005. Political Ideology and Endogenous Trade Policy: An Empirical Investigation. Review of Economics and Statistics 87 (1): 59–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emmenegger, P., and P. Marx. 2011. Business and the Development of Job Security Regulations: The Case of Germany. Socio-Economic Review 9 (4): 729–756.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferree, M.M., W.A. Gamson, J. Gerhards, and D. Rucht. 2002. Shaping Abortion Discourse. Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fioretos, O. 2011. Historical Institutionalism in International Relations. International Organization 65: 367–399.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forgacs, D. 2000. The Antonio Gramsci Reader. London, UK: Lawrence and Wishart.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fukuyama, F. 1992. The End of History and the Last Man. New York, NY: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrett, G. 1998. Partisan Politics in the Global Economy. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerhards, J., and F. Neidhardt. 1991. Strukturen und funktionen moderner öffentlichkeit: Fragestellungen und ansätze. In Öffentlichkeit, Kultur, Massenkommunikation, ed. S. Müller-Doohm and K. Neumann-Braun, 31–90. Oldenburg, DE: Universität Oldenburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gourevitch, P. 2002. Domestic Politics and International Relations. In Handbook of International Relations, ed. W. Carlsnaes, T. Risse-Kappen, and B.A. Simmons, 309–328. London, UK: Sage.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. 1993. Justification and Application: Remarks on Discourse Ethics. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, P.A. 1993. Policy Paradigms, Social Learning and the State: The Case of Economic Policymaking in Britain. Comparative Politics 25 (2): 275–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, P.A., and D.W. Gingerich. 2009. Varieties of Capitalism and Institutional Complementarities in the Political Economy: An Empirical Analysis. British Journal of Political Science 39 (3): 449–482.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, P.A., and D. Soskice. 2001. Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hancké, B., M. Rhodes, and M. Thatcher. 2007. Beyond Varieties of Capitalism. Conflict, Contradictions and Complementaries in the European Economy. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Häusermann, S. 2010. The Politics of Welfare State Reform in Continental Europe. Modernization in Hard Times. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Häusermann, S., and H. Kriesi. 2015. What Do Voters Want? Dimensions and Configurations in Individual-Level Preferences and Party Choice. In The Politics of Advanced Capitalism, ed. P. Beramendi, S. Häusermann, H. Kitschelt, and H. Kriesi. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hay, C. 2001. The ‘Crisis’ of Keynesianism and the Rise of Neoliberalism in Britain: An Ideational Institutional Approach. In The Rise of Neoliberalism and Institutional Analysis, ed. J. Campbell and O.K. Pedersen. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hay, C. 2006. Constructivist Institutionalism. In Oxford Handbook of Political Institutions, ed. R.A. Rhodes, W.S. Binder, and B. Rockman, 56–74. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hay, C. 2011. Ideas and the Construction of Interests. In Ideas and Politics in Social Science Research. New York: Oxford University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Hays, J. 2009. Globalization and the New Politics of Embedded Liberalism. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Helbling, M., D. Hoeglinger, and B. Wueest. 2010. How Political Parties Frame European Integration. European Journal of Political Research 49 (4): 495–521.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helbling, M., D. Hoeglinger, and B. Wueest. 2012. Public Debates Over Globalization: The Importance of Arenas and Actors. In Political Conflict in Western Europe, ed. H. Kriesi, E. Grande, M. Dolezal, M. Hebling, S. Hutter, D. Hoeglinger, and B. Wueest. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herrigel, G. 2007. Guest Editor’s Introduction: A New Wave in the History of Corporate Governance. Enterprise and Society 8 (30): 475–488.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huber, E., and J.D. Stephens. 2001. Development and Crisis of the Welfare States: Parties and Policies in Global Markets. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • IMF, I.M.F. 2010. World Economic Outlook Database. Nominal GDP List of Countries. Retrieved on Feb. 8, 2011, from http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2010/02/weodata/index.aspx.

  • Iversen, T., and T.R. Cusack. 2000. The Causes of Welfare State Expansion. Deindustrialization or Globalization? World Politics 52 (3): 313–349.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Katzenstein, P.J. 1985. Small States in World Markets: Industrial Policy in Europe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitschelt, H. 1999. European Social Democracy Between Political Economy and Electoral Competition. In Continuity and Change in Contemporary Capitalism, ed. H. Kitschelt, P. Lange, G. Marks, and J.D. Stephens. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitschelt, H. 2007. Growth and Persistence of the Radical Right in Postindustrial Democracies: Advances and Challenges in Comparative Research. West European Politics 30 (5): 1176–1206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koger, G., S. Masket, and H. Noel. 2009. Partisan Webs: Information Exchange and Party Networks. British Journal of Political Science 39 (1): 633–653.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kollmeyer, C. 2009. Explaining Deindustrialization: How Affluence, Productivity Growth, and Globalization Diminish Manufacturing Employment. American Journal of Sociology 114 (6): 1644–1674.

    Google Scholar 

  • Korpi, W. 2006. Power Resources and Employer-Centered Approaches in Explanations of Welfare States and Varieties of Capitalism: Protagonists, Consenters, and Antagonists. World Politics 58 (2): 167–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kriesi, H., R. Koopmans, J.W. Duyvendak, and M.G. Giugni. 1995. New Social Movements in Western Europe. A Comparative Analysis. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kriesi, H., A. Tresch, and M. Jochum. 2007. Going Public in the European Union. Action Repertoires of Western European Collective Political Actors. Comparative Political Studies 40 (1): 48–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kriesi, H., E. Grande, R. Lachat, M. Dolezal, S. Bornschier, and T. Frey. 2008. West European Politics in the Age of Globalization. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kriesi, H., E. Grande, M. Dolezal, M. Helbling, S. Hutter, D. Hoeglinger, and B. Wueest. 2012. Political Conflict in Western Europe. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Krugman, P., R.N. Cooper, and T.N. Srinivasan. 1995. Growing World Trade: Causes and Consequences. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1 (1): 327–377.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leifeld, P., and S. Haunss. 2012. Political Discourse Networks and the Conflict over Software Patents in Europe. European Journal of Political Research 51 (3): 382–409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lijphart, A. 1999. Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries. New Haven, CO: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mair, P. 2001. Ruling the Void? The Hollowing of Western Democracy. New Left Review 42 (1): 25–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mair, P. 2008. The Challenge to Party Government. West European Politics 31 (1–2): 211–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mancini, P., and D.L. Swanson. 1996. Politics, Media, and Modern Democracy: Introduction. In Politics, Media, and Modern Democracy: An International Study of Innovations in Electoral Campaigning and Their Consequence, 1–28. Westport, CT: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manin, B. 1997. The Principles of Representative Government. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McCartney, H. 2009. Variegated Neo-Liberalism: Transnationally Oriented Fractions of Capital in EU Financial Market Integration. Review of International Studies 35 (1): 451–480.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Medrano, J.D. 2003. Framing Europe: Attitudes to European Integration in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milner, H.V., and B. Judkins. 2004. Partisanship, Trade Policy, and Globalization: Is There a Left-Right Divide on Trade Policy? International Studies Quarterly 48 (1): 95–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moses, J. 1994. Abdication from National Policy Autonomy: What’s Left for the Left to Leave? Politics and Society 22 (2): 125–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Müller, L. 2015. Comparing Mass Media in Established Democracies. Patterns of Media Performance. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ohmae, K. 1995. The End of the Nation State. How Region States Harness the Prosperity of the Global Economy. New York, NY: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Overbeek, H. 2004. Transnational Class Formation and Concepts of Control: Towards a Genealogy of the Amsterdam Project in International Political Economy. Journal of International Relations and Development 7 (2): 113–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pierson, P. 2001. The New Politics of the Welfare State. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pontusson, J., and D. Rueda. 2010. The Politics of Inequality: Voter Mobilization and Left Parties in Advanced Industrial States. Comparative Political Studies 43 (6): 675–705.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Przeworsky, A., and C.M. Yebra. 2005. Globalization and Democracy. In Globalization and Egalitarian Distribution, ed. P. Bardhay, S. Bowles, and M. Wallerstein, 169–191. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ragin, C.C. 2008. Redesigning Social Inquiry: Fuzzy Sets and Beyond. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Reich, R. 2007. Supercapitalism. New York, NY: Knopf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodrik, D. 1997. Has Globalization Gone Too Far? Washington, DC: Institute of International Economics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruggie, J.G. 1982. International Regimes, Transactions, and Change: Embedded Liberalism in the Postwar Economic Order. International Organization 36 (2): 379–415.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruggie, J.G. 2008. Embedding Global Markets: An Enduring Challenge. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabatier, P. 1998. The Advocacy Coalition Framework: Revision and Relevance for Europe. Journal of European Public Policy 5 (1): 98–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sabatier, P.A., and C.M. Weible. 2007a. The Advocacy Coalition Framework: Innovations and Clarifications. In Theories of the Policy Process, ed. P.A. Sabatier and C.M. Weible, 189–219. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabatier, P.A., and C.M. Weible. 2007b. Theories of the Policy Process. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scharpf, F.W., and V.A. Schmidt. 2000. Welfare and Work in the Open Economy. From Vulnerability to Competitiveness. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Schattschneider, E.E. 1960. The Semisovereign People: A Realist’s View of Democracy in America. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, V.A. 2002. The Futures of European Capitalism. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, V.A. 2008. Discursive Institutionalism: The Explanatory Power of Ideas and Discourse. Annual Review of Political Science 11 (1): 303–326.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, V.A. 2009. Putting the Political Back into Political Economy by Bringing the State Back in Yet Again. World Politics 61 (3): 516–546.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmitter, P.C., and J.R. Grote. 1997. Der korporatistische sisyphus: Vergangenheit, gegenwart und zukunft. Politische Vierteljahresschrift 38 (1): 530–554.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schnyder, G., and E. Heemskerk. 2008. Small States, International Pressures, and Interlocking Directorates: The Cases of Switzerland and The Netherlands. European Management Review 5 (1): 41–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, H. 2001. Round Up the Usual Suspects!: Globalization, Domestic Politics, and Welfare State Change. In The New Politics of the Welfare State, ed. P. Pierson, 17–45. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, N., and C. Hay. 2008. Mapping the Political Discourse of Globalisation and European Integraton in the United Kingdom and Ireland Empirically. European Journal of Political Research 47 (3): 359–382.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sniderman, P.M. 2000. Taking Sides: A Fixed Choice Theory of Political Reasoning. In Elements of Reason: Cognition, Choice, and the Bounds of Rationality, ed. A. Lupia, M.D. McCubbins, and S.L. Popkin, 236–279. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steenbergen, M.R., A. Bächtiger, M. Spörndli, and J. Steiner. 2003. Measuring Political Deliberation: A Discourse Quality Index. Comparative European Politics 1: 21–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Streeck, W. 2009. Re-Forming Capitalism. Insitutional Change in the German Political Economy. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Streeck, W. 2011. The Crisis in Context: Democratic Capitalism and Its Contradictions. MPIfG Discussion Paper 11/15, Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tannenwald, N. 2005. Ideas and Explanation: Advancing the Theoretical Agenda. Journal of Cold War Studies 7 (2): 13–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tarrow, S., and J. Caporaso. 2009. Polanyi in Brussels: Supranational Institutions and the Transnational Embedding of Markets. International Organization 63 (4): 593–620.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thelen, K.A., and I. Kume. 2006. Coordination as a Political Problem in Coordinated Market Economies. Governance 19 (1): 11–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thibergien, Y. 2007. Entepreneurial States: Reforming Corporate Governance in France, Japan, and Korea. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Apeldoorn, B. 2002. Transnational Capitalism and the Struggle over European Integration. London, UK: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • van der Pijl, K. 1998. Transnational Classes and International Relations. London, UK: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Dijk, T.A. 2000. Ideologies, Racism, Discourse. Debates on Immigration and Ethnic Issues. In Comparative Perspectives on Racism, ed. J. der Wal and M. Verkuyten, 91–116. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Visser, J., and A. Afonso. 2010. Liberal-Corporatist Paths to Employment Performance. The Politics and Economics of Change in the Dutch and Swiss Social Models. Paper Presented at the Congress of the Swiss Political Science Association, January, 7–8, Geneva, Switzerland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Visser, J., and A. Hemerjick. 1997. ‘A Dutch Miracle’: Job Growth, Welfare Reform and Corporatism in the Netherlands. Amsterdam, NL: Amsterdam University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster, F. 2014. Theories of the Information Society. London, UK: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wueest, B. 2013. Varieties of Capitalist Debates: How Institutions Shape Public Conflicts on Economic Liberalization in the U.K., France, and Germany. Comparative European Politics 11: 752–772.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wueest, B., and F. Fossati. 2015. Quantitative Discursive Institutionalism: A Comparison of Labour Market Policy Discourse Across Western Europe. Journal of European Public Policy 22 (5): 708–730.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Bruno Wueest

Authors
  1. Bruno Wueest
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bruno Wueest .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Wueest, B. (2018). Introduction: Mapping Economic Liberalization Discourse in Western Europe. In: The Politics of Economic Liberalization. Building a Sustainable Political Economy: SPERI Research & Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62322-1_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation