Conservative Revival and the Rise of ‘Others’

2021 ◽  
pp. 147-188
Author(s):  
David Denver ◽  
Mark Garnett
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Party System ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Tony Blair ◽  
Liberal Democrats ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
Previous Decade ◽  
The Status ◽  
Scottish Independence ◽  
The Right

This chapter examines the closely fought elections of 2010 and 2015, the first of which produced the first British coalition government since 1945 in a period which saw the continued fragmentation of the party system and the rise of United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and the Scottish National Party (SNP).Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as Prime Minister in 2007, and initially impressions were favourable. However, almost as soon as Brown had decided against a ‘snap’ election to exploit his popularity, events turned against him and his party. The worldwide global financial crisis, which began in 2007, hit Britain particularly hard, and like Major’s Conservatives in the previous decade New Labour lost its reputation for economic competence. The Conservatives, under David Cameron who proclaimed himself ‘the heir to Blair’, won the largest number of seats in the 2010 election, which was particularly noteworthy for the introduction of televised leader debates. However, the 2010 contest resulted in a ‘hung parliament’ and a coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. The key events of the ensuing five years are examined, including the introduction of a Fixed-Term Parliaments Act which purportedly deprived Prime Ministers of the right to call elections at times of their own choosing. There were also referendums of Electoral Reform (2011) and Scottish independence (2014), in which the status quo was upheld without seeming to put an end to either question. In particular, the SNP continued to prosper despite the 2014 result, and in the 2015 general election it won almost all of the Scottish parliamentary seats. In England, UKIP had become a very serious threat both to Labour and the Conservatives, who had imposed unpopular cuts in public expenditure (‘austerity’) in response to the financial crisis. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats had lost much of their electoral appeal during their ill-fated alliance with Cameron’s Conservatives. The overall result of the 2015 election was an overall victory for the Conservatives, but by a margin which left Cameron vulnerable to Eurosceptics within his party.

scholarly journals Electoral Shocks

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Fieldhouse ◽  
Jane Green ◽  
Geoffrey Evans ◽  
Jonathan Mellon ◽  
Christopher Prosser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Electoral Volatility ◽  
Liberal Democrats ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
Electoral Choice ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Scottish Independence ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis ◽  
The Uk

This book offers a novel perspective on British elections, focusing on the importance of increasing electoral volatility in British elections, and the role of electoral shocks in the context of increasing volatility. It demonstrates how shocks have contributed to the level of electoral volatility, and also which parties have benefited from the ensuing volatility. It follows in the tradition of British Election Study books, providing a comprehensive account of specific election outcomes—the General Elections of 2015 and 2017—and a more general approach to understanding electoral change.We examine five electoral shocks that affected the elections of 2015 and 2017: the rise in EU immigration after 2004, particularly from Eastern Europe; the Global Financial Crisis prior to 2010; the coalition government of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats between 2010 and 2015; the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014; and the European Union Referendum in 2016.Our focus on electoral shocks offers an overarching explanation for the volatility in British elections, alongside the long-term trends that have led us to this point. It offers a way to understand the rise and fall of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Labour’s disappointing 2015 performance and its later unexpected gains, the collapse in support for the Liberal Democrats, the dramatic gains of the Scottish National Party (SNP) in 2015, and the continuing period of tumultuous politics that has followed the EU Referendum and the General Election of 2017. It provides a new way of understanding electoral choice in Britain, and beyond, and a better understanding of the outcomes of recent elections.

Greek Crisis

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stella Ladi ◽  
Vivian Spyropoulou
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Party System ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Debt Crisis ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Economic Adjustment ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Greek Crisis ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

The Greek crisis started in 2009 as a result of the global financial crisis of 2008, and it officially ended in August 2018 when Greece exited the Third Economic Adjustment Programme that it had signed with its international lenders to avoid default. Greece had to seek help from international lenders, including the European Commission (EC), European Central Bank (ECB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and, in the last program, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), three times (2010, 2012, and 2015). The crisis soon spread to other European Monetary Union (EMU) countries—namely Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and Cyprus—and it was transformed into a Eurozone crisis, with some commonalities but with different characteristics in each case. The Greek crisis was a sovereign debt crisis that resulted from a continuous aggravation of the national economic indicators, such as growth, inflation, and unemployment, serious long term structural shortcomings, and the pressure from the global financial crisis. The economic crisis was soon translated into a political crisis that shook the Greek party system and strengthened more radical parties such as the left-wing Syriza and the neo-fascist Golden Dawn. Strong one-party governments became a memory of the past and were replaced by short-lived coalition governments. The economic pressure also led to a serious social crisis with rising poverty levels, unprecedented numbers of homeless, and a welfare system unable to cope with the increasing demands. It posed questions about the shape of Greece’s political and social institutions, its legal system and Constitution, and its public administration’s capability to cope with the crisis and implement the conditionality attached to the three economic adjustment programs. Last but not least, the Greek crisis brought into fore the weaknesses and discrepancies of the EMU and was the motive behind important structural reforms, such as the creation of new financial assistance and surveillance mechanisms, including the ESM, as well as the strengthening of informal institutions such as the Euro summits. The discussion was soon extended to a questioning of the viability of the European Union (EU) project, the role of Germany, and the changing Europeanization mechanisms. The bibliography about the Greek crisis developed quickly and covers economic, political, social, and legal issues concerning not only Greece, but also the EU as a whole, taking the case of Greece as a starting point.

Belén Gopegui’s literature in crisis: Anticipating the literatura de la crisis?

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-25
Author(s):  
Maite Usoz de la Fuente
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Job Insecurity ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Status ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Financial Crisis Of 2008 ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

In recent years, and in response to the global financial crisis of 2008, Spain has seen the surge of a new literary sub-genre, that of literatura de la crisis: novels, essays and short stories attempting to reflect and make sense of the crisis and its effects in the country. In this article, I propose that there is an alternative literature in crisis that, while at times overlapping with the aforementioned literatura de la crisis, also antedates it. Such literature shows a concern with socio-economic phenomena such as unemployment and job insecurity, precarity, the effects of globalization or the rise in inequality long before these issues became fashionable. In this article, I analyse four novels by Belén Gopegui that predate the crisis in order to trace the key features of her literature in crisis ‐ chief among them is her meta-literary exploration of her own assimilation of (or possible complicity with) the hegemonic discourses she seeks to critique. Finally, I contend that the vindication of this literature in crisis is timely and relevant not only because of its connection to the booming sub-genre of literatura de la crisis but also because it is only through the radical interrogation of the status quo carried out by this author that the full emancipatory potential of literature and culture may be realized.

Institutional work amidst the financial crisis: emerging positions of elite actors

Organization ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suhaib Riaz ◽  
Sean Buchanan ◽  
Hari Bapuji
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Institutional Work ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

We draw on the institutional work literature to analyse the rhetoric in mainstream media spawned by the global financial crisis. We identify the emerging positions (status quo, neutral and change) of actors on major themes (policy, practices, recovery and regulation) related to the crisis and the rhetorical processes used (appeals to expert authority, finding someone to blame, use of scenarios, and avoidance of critical discussion) to communicate these positions. We find that academics lead the charge for change in policy, relying mostly on rhetorical processes that involve the use of past scenarios and blame, but also often avoid critical discussion through over-generalization. In contrast, banks focus on changes in practices, mostly using future scenarios, finding specific others to blame, and also appealing to expert authority. The US Federal Reserve takes the lead on maintaining the status quo on regulation-related issues, largely through using various scenarios and appeals to expert authority. We also find a large number of neutral positions and interpret this as tacit support for existing institutions. We conclude by charting out a broader research agenda for further investigation of the actors-institutions interplay, particularly within the context of the financial crisis.

scholarly journals Effects of the Global Financial Crisis on the Agency Cost of Islamic Banks and Conventional Banks

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Talla M Aldeehani
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Gulf Cooperation Council ◽  
Agency Cost ◽  
Islamic Banks ◽  
Empirical Testing ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Status ◽  
Conventional Banks ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

In this paper, we investigate the effect of the 2008 global financial crisis on the agency cost (AC) of Islamic banks (IBs) and conventional banks (CBs). Many pioneering scholars (see, for example, Archer et al., 1998) have recognized fundamental differences in the capital structures and risks of IBs compared to CBs and called for more empirical testing of these issues. This effort is in response to those calls. Focusing on AC, we collected data for all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) banks satisfying the period from 2001-2014. The data was split into “before” and “after” the 2008 crisis. Although statistically insignificant, the analysis shows higher AC for IB compared to CBs before and after the crisis. However, we provide evidence of significant differences in AC causal models for the two types of banks. For conventional banks, only profitability factors explain variability in AC before and after the crisis. For Islamic banks, however, in addition to profitability, liquidity, deposits and financing facilities matter depending on the status of the economy. We provide further discussions, implications, and recommendations.

Why was Asia Resilient? Lessons from the Past and for the Future

2014 ◽  
Vol 05 (02) ◽  
pp. 1450002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phakawa Jeasakul ◽  
Cheng Hoon Lim ◽  
Erik Lundback
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Credit Expansion ◽  
Risk Premiums ◽  
The Face ◽  
External Conditions ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Asset Quality ◽  
The Right

Asia proved to be remarkably resilient in the face of the global financial crisis, but why was its output performance stronger than that of other regions? The paper shows that better initial conditions — in the form of lower external and financial vulnerabilities — contributed significantly to Asia's resilience. Key pre-crisis factors included moderate credit expansion, reliance on deposit funding, enhanced bank asset quality, reduced external financing, and improved current accounts. These improvements reflected the lessons from the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, which helped to reshape both public policies and private sector behavior. Looking ahead, Asia is in the process of adjusting to more volatile external conditions and higher risk premiums. By drawing the right lessons from its pre-crisis experiences, Asia's economies will be better equipped to address new risks associated with increased cross-border capital flows and greater integration with the rest of the world.

How the Decline of Class Voting Opened the Way to Radical Change in British Politics

1984 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 483-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark N. Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Major Party ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Class Voting ◽  
The Status ◽  
Party Voting ◽  
The Right

The victory of an established major party in the 1983 British general election, with the other established party coming second, should not be allowed to obscure the fact that the outcome could easily have been very different. The purpose of this article is to show how the social structure that used to underpin traditional two-party voting has changed its nature in recent years, so that at least since 1974 the potential has existed for the right combination of political forces to reduce one or both traditional major parties either to the status of minor contender, or else to that of a more equal partner in what is no longer a two-party system. In a recent article, Crewe has documented the extreme and unpredictable nature of the volatility that has marked party preferences among the British electorate in recent years. The present article seeks to lay bare the underlying concomitants of that more visible phenomenon.

A Past Returned, A Future Deferred

2020 ◽  
pp. 163-184
Author(s):  
Maya Nadkarni
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Fiftieth Anniversary ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
Economic Crises ◽  
Twentieth Anniversary ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis ◽  
The Right

This chapter examines how the experience of the crises fueled renewed complaints that remains of socialism prevented Hungarians from attaining a “normal” life of political civility and economic prosperity. It talks about Hungary's twentieth anniversary of 1989, in which the memory of the transition now only inspired the lament that “communism never ended.” With the anniversary of the events in 1989, new political and economic crises appeared to threaten the success of Hungary's postsocialist transformation. The chapter also narrates events on the fiftieth anniversary of the 1956 revolution in 2006 when the right-wing demonstrators protested the socialist-led government and had admitted to lying to win the election. It also discusses the global financial crisis in 2008 that hit Hungary with disproportionate force that lead to the first-ever International Monetary Fund bailout of an EU country.

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