‘There is no alternative’: How Italian and Spanish leaders’ discourse obscured the political nature of austerity

Abstract

The Eurozone crisis and the remarkable convergence of national governments towards austerity policies draw scholars’ attention to the discursive strategies that they have used in order to legitimate their economic decisions. This article studies the common features of austerity discourse beyond national and partisan boundaries. It relies on an in-depth analysis combining lexicography and the study of metaphors in speeches of the Italian and Spanish heads of government between 2011 and 2013. While drawing on recent work addressing the legitimation of economic policies, this research takes a step back in order to shed light on the broader discourse on which austerity policies rely and in order to explain the common patterns in various political actors’ discourse. Rooted in a post-foundational approach, it identifies several discursive strategies for depoliticising economic issues (e.g. the construction of an economic common sense, the appeal to external constraints and the metaphorical naturalisation of economics), thus unveiling their political nature. The ‘restructuring’ and ‘rescaling’ of social practices are identified as the main mechanisms pertaining to the articulation of such a broader hegemonic discourse.