Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-20T08:48:02.443Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From ‘one right way’ to ‘one ruinous way’? Discursive shifts in ‘There is no alternative’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2016

Astrid Séville
Astrid Séville*
Affiliation:
Geschwister-Scholl-Institut für Politikwissenschaft, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

If decisions are made in democracies in open procedures, the rhetoric of There is no alternative (TINA) raises certain questions. Tracing back the idea of necessity to symptomatic discourses, this article analyzes TINA as a political strategy in contexts such as Thatcherism, Third Way politics, and European crisis management, and sheds light on the specific characteristics of politics in the name of TINA. The analysis identifies distinct models of ‘one way’ discourses, reflecting political cultures and institutional settings and providing discursive trajectories. We examine the motivation for invoking necessity to justify unpalatable and normatively intricate policy decisions, and understand TINA politics in its double effect: as facilitating certain policies yet obstructing democratic and deliberative procedures. This allows us to address the question of whether the politics of our time shows a disposition to TINA as a means of responding to the rise and fall of political steering optimism.

Keywords

discoursenecessitycrisisneoliberalismtechnocracy
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , August 2017 , pp. 449 - 470
Copyright
© European Consortium for Political Research 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andersson, J. (2010), The Library and the Workshop. Social Democracy and Capitalism in the Knowledge Age, Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Asmussen, J. (2012), Building Trust in a World of Unknown Unknowns: Central Bank Communication between Markets and Politics in the Crisis, Speech at the European Communication Summit 2012, Brussels, 6 July 2012.Google Scholar
Barroso, J.M.D. (2011), Statement by President Barroso at the Press Conference following the Meeting of the Heads of State or Government of the Euro Area, Brussels, 27 October 2011.Google Scholar
Belke, A. (2012), ‘The Eurozone crisis and debt mutualization: assessing the Merkel government view’, Applied Economics Quarterly 58(4): 265–278.Google Scholar
Blair, T. (1996), New Britain: My Vision of a Young Country, London: Fourth Estate.Google Scholar
Blair, T. (1998), The Third Way. New Politics for the New Century, London: Fabian Society.Google Scholar
Blair, T. (2000), Speech at the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland, 28 January 2000.Google Scholar
Blair, T. and Schröder, G. (1999), Europe: The Third Way – Die Neue Mitte, London: Labour Party and SPD.Google Scholar
Burgin, A. (2012), The Great Persuasion. Reinventing Free Market since the Depression, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burnham, P. (2001), ‘New labour and the politics of depoliticisation’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations 3(2): 127–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burnham, P. (2014), ‘Depoliticisation: economic crisis and political management’, Policy & Politics 42(2): 189–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chapman, J. (2013), ‘There is no alternative’: Cameron echoes Maggie to defy calls for increased borrowing and tax cuts, Daily Mail, 8 March 2013. Retrieved 1 April 2014 from www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2289989/There-alternative-David-Cameron-echoes-Margaret-Thatcher-defy-calls-increased-borrowing-tax-cuts.html.Google Scholar
Charteris-Black, J. (2011), Politicians and Rhetoric. The Persuasive Power of Metaphor, 2nd edn., Houndmills/Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coopey, R. and Woodward, N. (1996), Britain in the 1970s: The Troubled Economy, London: UCL Press.Google Scholar
Crouch, C. (2011), The Strange Non-death of Neo-liberalism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
de Haan, J. and Eijfinger, S.C.W. (2000), ‘The democratic accountability of the European central bank: a comment on two fairy-tales’, Journal of Common Market Studies 38(3): 393–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elgie, R. (1998), ‘Democratic Accountability and Central Bank Independence. Historical and Contemporary, National and European perspectives’, West European Politics 21(3): 53–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elster, J. (1979), Ulysses and the Sirens: Studies in Rationality and Irrationality, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Enderlein, H. (2013), ‘Das erste Opfer der Krise ist die Demokratie: wirtschaftspolitik und ihre Legitimation in der Finanzmarktkrise 2008–2013’, Politische Vierteljahreszeitschrift 54(4): 714–739.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990), The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Faucher-King, F. and Le Galès, P. (2010), The New Labour Experiment. Change and Reform Under Blair and Brown, Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Ferrara, A. (2008), The Force of the Example: Explorations in the Paradigm of Judgment, New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Fligstein, N. and Mara-Drita, I. (1996), ‘How to make a market. Reflections on the attempt to create a single market in European Union’, American Journal of Sociology 102(1): 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flinders, M. and Buller, J. (2006), ‘Depoliticisation. Principles, tactics and tools’, British Politics 3(1): 1–26.Google Scholar
Foster, E.A., Kerr, P. and Byrne, C. (2014), ‘Rolling back to roll forward: depoliticisation and the extension of government’, Policy and Politics 42(2): 225–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) (2010), Merkel: Scheitert der Euro, dann scheitert Europa, 19 May 2010. Retrieved 30 September 2013 from www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/merkel-scheitert-der-euro-dann-scheitert-europa-1982230.html.Google Scholar
Gamble, A. (1988), The Free Economy and the Strong State. The Politics of Thatcherism, Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Gamble, A. (2009), The Spectre at the Feast. Capitalist Crisis and the Politics of Recession, Basingstoke: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Gamble, A. (2013), ‘Neo-liberalism and fiscal conservatism’, in V.A. Schmidt and M. Thatcher (eds), Resilient Liberalism in Europe’s Political Economy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 53–76.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1991), Consequences of Modernity, Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1994), Beyond Left and Right. The Future of Radical Politics, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Haas, P.M. (1992), ‘Introduction: epistemic communities and international policy coordination’, International Organization 46(1): 1–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habermas, J. (2015), The Lure of Technocracy, Cambridge: 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(3): 275–296.Google Scholar
Hall, P.A. (2014), ‘Varieties of capitalism and the Euro crisis’, in R. Hansen (ed.), Europe’s Crisis: Background, Dimensions, Solutions. Special Issue West European Politics, Abingdon: Taylor & Francis, pp. 1223–1243.Google Scholar
Hall, S. (1988), The Hard Road to Renewal. Thatcherism and the Crisis of the Left, London/New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Hansen, R. and Gordon, J.C. (2014), ‘Deficits, democracy, and demographics: Europe’s three crises’, in R. Hansen (ed.), Europe’s Crisis: Background, Dimensions, Solutions. Special Issue West European Politics, Abingdon: Taylor & Francis, pp. 1199–1222.Google Scholar
Harvey, D. (2005), A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hay, C. (2001), ‘Negotiating international constraints: the antinomies of credibility and competitiveness in the political economy of new labour’, Competition & Change 5(3): 269–289.Google Scholar
Hay, C. (2004), ‘The normalizing role of rationalist assumptions in the institutional embedding of neoliberalism’, Economy and Society 33(4): 500–527.Google Scholar
Hay, C. (2006), ‘What’s globalisation got to do with it? Economic interdependence and the future of European welfare states’, Government and Opposition 41(1): 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hay, C. (2007), ‘Whatever happened to Thatcherism?’, Political Studies Review 5(2): 183–201.Google Scholar
Hay, C. (2007), Why We Hate Politics, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Hay, C. (2009), ‘The winter of discontent thirty years on’, The Political Quarterly 80(4): 545–552.Google Scholar
Hay, C. and Rosamond, B. (2002), ‘Globalization, European integration and the discursive construction of economic imperatives’, Journal of European Public Policy 9(2): 147–167.Google Scholar
Hay, C. and Farrall, S. (2011), ‘Establishing the ontological status of thatcherism by gauging its ‘Periodisability’: towards a ‘Cascade Theory’ of public policy radicalism’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations 13(4): 439–458.Google Scholar
Hay, C. and Watson, M. (2004), ‘The discourse of globalisation and the logic of no alternative. Rendering the contingent necessary in the political economy of new labour’, Policy & Politics 30(4): 289–305.Google Scholar
Hildebrand, M. and Martell, C.L. (2012), ‘The negation of power: from structuration to theory to the politics of the third way’, Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory 13(2): 187–207.Google Scholar
Hooghe, L. and Marks, G. (2008), ‘A postfunctionalist theory of European integration: from permissive consensus to constraining dissensus’, British Journal of Political Science 39(1): 1–23.Google Scholar
Hutter, S. and Kerscher, A. (2014), ‘Politicizing Europe in hard times: conflicts over Europe in France in a long-term perspective, 1974–2012’, Journal of European Integration 36(3): 267–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutter, S. and Grande, E. (2014), ‘Politicizing Europe in the national electoral arena. A comparative analysis of five West European countries’, Journal of Common Market Studies 52(5): 1002–1018.Google Scholar
Jessop, B. (2007), ‘New labour or the normalization of neo-liberalism’, British Politics 2(7): 282–288.Google Scholar
Kerr, P. (2001), Postwar British Politics. From Conflict to Consensus, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Le Monde (2013a), Selon Christine Lagarde, il n’y a ‘pas d’alternative à l’austérité’, 2 May 2013. Retrieved 17 May 2013 from www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2013/05/02/selon-christine-lagarde-il-n-y-a-pas-d-alternative-a-l-austerite_3170174_3234.html.Google Scholar
Le Monde (2013b), En pleine tempête, le PS veut éviter que son conseil national ‘ne tourne à la crise’, 13 April 2013. Retrieved 17 May 2013 from www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2013/04/13/en-pleine-tempete-le-ps-veut-eviter-que-son-conseil-national-ne-tourne-a-la-crise_3159231_823448.html.Google Scholar
Lefkofridi, Z. and Schmitter, P.C. (2015), ‘Transcending or descending? European integration in times of crisis’, European Political Science Review 7(1): 3–22.Google Scholar
Luhmann, N. (2000), Die Politik der Gesellschaft, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Machiavelli, N. (2008 [1517]), Discorsi [= Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius], (translated with an introduction and notes by J.C. Bondanella and P. Bondanella) Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mair, P. (2000), ‘Partyless democracy. Solving the paradox of new labour?’, New Left Review 41(2): 21–35.Google Scholar
Mair, P. (2013), Ruling the Void: The Hollowing of Western Democracy, London: Verso.Google Scholar
McNamara, K.R. (1999), The Currency of Ideas. Monetary Politics in the European Union, Ithaca, NY/London: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Meier, C. (1966), Res publica amissa: Eine Studie zu Verfassung und Geschichte der späten römischen Republik, Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag.Google Scholar
Merkel, A. (2010), Government declaration by the Federal Chancellor about the measures taken to stabilise the Euro, given in the German Bundestag on 19 May 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2011 from www.bundesregierung.de/Content/DE/Regierungserklaerung/2010/2010-05-19-merkel-erklaerung-eu-stabilisierungsmassnahmen.html.Google Scholar
Mouffe, C. (2005), On the Political, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mourlon-Druol, E. (2014), ‘Don’t blame the Euro: historical reflections on the roots of the Eurozone crisis’, in R. Hansen (ed.), Europe’s Crisis: Background, Dimensions, Solutions. Special Issue West European Politics, Abingdon: Taylor & Francis, pp. 1282–1296.Google Scholar
Pierson, P. (1994), Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher, and the politics of retrenchment, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierson, P. (1996), ‘The new politics of the welfare state’, World Politics 48(2): 143–179.Google Scholar
Ramonet, I. (1995), ‘La pensée unique’, Le Monde Diplomatique. Retrieved 12 February 2016 from www.monde-diplomatique.fr/1995/01/RAMONET/6069 Google Scholar
Rosa, H. (2005), Beschleunigung. Die Veränderung der Zeitstrukturen in der Moderne, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Schäfer, A. (2012), ‘Consequences of social inequality for democracy in Western Europe’, Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft 6(2): 23–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scharpf, F.W. (2011), Monetary Union, Fiscal Crisis and the Preemption of Democracy. LEQS Annual Lecture Paper. Retrieved 3 May 2013 from www.lse.ac.uk/europeanInstitute/LEQS/LEQSPaper36.pdf.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, V.A. (2000), ‘Values and discourse in the politics of adjustment’, in F. Scharpf and V.A. Schmidt (eds), Work and Welfare in the Open Economy, Vol. 1, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 229–309.Google Scholar
Schmidt, V.A. (2014), ‘Speaking to the markets or to the people? A discursive institutionalist analysis of the EU’s sovereign debt crisis’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations 16(1): 188–209.Google Scholar
Schmidt, V.A. and Radaelli, C.M. (2004), ‘Policy change and discourse in Europe: conceptual and methodological issues’, West European Politics 27(2): 183–210.Google Scholar
Schmidt, V.A. and Thatcher, M. (eds), (2013), Resilient Liberalism in Europe’s Political Economy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schimmelfennig, F. (2014), ‘European Integration in the Euro Crisis. The Limits of Postfunctionalism’, Journal of European Integration 36(3): 321–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmitt, C. (2013 [1921]), Dictatorship. From the Beginning of the Modern Concept of Sovereignty to the Proletarian Class-Struggle, Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Stedman Jones, D. (2012), Masters of the Universe. Hayek, Friedman, and the Birth of Neoliberal Politics, Princeton/Oxford: : Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Streeck, W. (2014), Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, London: Verso.Google Scholar
Thatcher, M. (1980a), Press Conference for American correspondents, London 25 June 1980, MTFW 104389.Google Scholar
Thatcher, M. (1980b), Interview for Sunday Times, 3 August 1980, MTFW 104214.Google Scholar
Thatcher, M. (1981a), Press Conference for British Press (Melbourne CHOGM), 7 October 1981, MTFW 104713.Google Scholar
Thatcher, M. (1981b), Speech at Conservative Party, 16 October 1981, MTFW 104717.Google Scholar
Thatcher, M. (1983), Speech to Conservative Party Conference, 14 October 1983, MTFW 105454.Google Scholar
Thatcher, M. (1987), Interview for Woman’s Own, 23 September 1987, MTFW 106689.Google Scholar
Thatcher, M. (1993), The Downing Street Years, London: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Séville supplementary material

Documentation of 2nd Revision

Download Séville supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 138.2 KB