Budget Politics in Really Hard Times:

Author(s):  
Sebastián Dellepiane-Avellaneda

This chapter examines the politics of fiscal squeeze during the Argentine Great Depression (1999–2002) and subsequent economic recovery (2003–07). Argentina’s dramatic transition from poster child to basket case has received much attention, but little systematic research has been conducted on the logic, determinants and implications of the key budget decisions taken before, during and after the financial collapse of 2001. This chapter fills the gap in two ways. First, it assesses fiscal policymaking during both the recession and economic crisis period and the subsequent recovery, focusing on the timing, size and composition of deficit-cutting measures (spending cuts and tax increases). Secondly, it analyses the politics of fiscal adjustment, including the strategies adopted by governments to legitimise the fiscal squeeze. The Argentine case provides insights into the political effort going into budget consolidation in really hard times and offers a counterpoint to received views about the possibilities and limits of austerity.

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-24
Author(s):  
Luiz Fernando de Paula ◽  
Fabiano Santos ◽  
Rafael Moura

An analysis of the endogenous and exogenous political and economic factors that conditioned the Partido dos Trabalhadores’s (PT) social-developmentalist project in 2003–2016 in the light of financialization and the “confidence game” conditioned by the volatility of external liquidity and commodities prices concludes that the first Lula administration faced the problem of a crisis of confidence and adopted orthodox policies but was able, with the improvement of international conditions, to launch policies of a more interventionist and distributive trend. Dilma Rousseff, facing a downright unfavorable international context, explicitly broke with the confidence game by applying the policy set of the new macroeconomic matrix. In her second term she radically reversed the policy orientation, moving toward a strong fiscal adjustment and monetary orthodoxy, and this eventually undermined her few sources of political support. The economic crisis from the second half of 2014 on undoubtedly contributed to the political crisis, which in turn made infeasible any attempt to implement policies to reverse the situation of economic crisis. Dilma’s impeachment finally interrupted the PT’s developmentalist project, allowing the emergence of new political actors. Uma análise dos fatores endógenos e exógenos, políticos e econômicos que condicionaram o projeto social-desenvolvimentista do Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) em 2003–2016 à luz da financeirização e do “confidence game” condicionado pela volatilidade dos ciclos externos de liquidez e preços de commodities conclui que o primeiro governo Lula enfrentou o problema de crise de confiança e adotou políticas ortodoxas, mas pôde, com a melhoria nas condições internacionais, adotar políticas de perfil mais intervencionista e redistributivista. Já Dilma Rousseff, embora enfrentando contexto internacional francamente desfavorável, rompe explicitamente com o “confidence game” ao assumir o conjunto de políticas da Nova Matriz Macroeconômica. Na transição do primeiro para o segundo mandato, Dilma inverteu radicalmente a orientação das políticas, partindo para um forte ajuste fiscal e a ortodoxia monetária, o que acabou minando os poucos focos de sustentação política com os quais contava na sociedade. A crise econômica a partir do segundo semestre de 2014 sem dúvida contribuiu para dar origem à crise política, e esta por sua vez inviabilizou qualquer tentativa de implementação de políticas para reverter o quadro de crise econômica. O impeachment de Dilma, por fim, interrompe o projeto desenvolvimentista do PT, permitindo a emergência de novos atores políticos.


Author(s):  
Chris Miller

In 2008, Vladimir Putin reached the end of his second presidential term. Barred by the constitution from serving three consecutive terms, he appointed Dmitry Medvedev his successor and took the position of prime minister for himself. The political shift coincided with an economic crisis, as the financial crash in the United States spread to Russia. Oil prices slumped and financial markets froze up. Many in Russia predicted the end of Putinomics, and new president Medvedev touted his plans to diversify Russia’s economy away from energy. Little came of that. Instead, Russia used the huge financial war chest that Putin had built up to bail out businesses and plug holes in the budget while waiting for an economic recovery. Renewed growth came quickly, though with less vigor than before. Slower growth rates and continued corruption sparked anti-Putin protests in Moscow during late 2011 and early 2012, but Putin’s record of economic success during the 2000s gave him the support he needed to sideline opponents and reassert his control on power. He returned to the presidency in 2012.


Author(s):  
Niamh Hardiman

Ireland has been taken as an exemplary instance of fiscal adjustment, not once but twice in its recent history: in the late 1980s, and again after 2008. Ireland has appeared to be a model case which would support the ‘expansionary fiscal contraction’ argument that economic recovery and renewed growth follow from fiscal consolidation. This chapter examines the merits of this argument in both time periods. It proposes a methodological approach based on analysing political and policy choice, and re-evaluates the issue of the composition of adjustment as between spending cuts and tax increases. It finds that international and domestic economic conditions had bigger effects on outcomes in this case than is conventionally recognised. The chapter thus sets out a new framework for understanding the Irish case, and presents findings that are at odds with the conventional wisdom concerning the politics of fiscal squeeze and austerity in Ireland.


Author(s):  
Balázs Trencsényi ◽  
Michal Kopeček ◽  
Luka Lisjak Gabrijelčič ◽  
Maria Falina ◽  
Mónika Baár ◽  
...  

The success of the Bolshevik Revolution confirmed that economic backwardness was not necessarily an obstacle for socialism, as it triggered the radicalization of leftist movements in the region. Yet this also led to polarization of the left on questions of Soviet-Russian developments and possible cooperation with non-socialist parties, as well as agrarian and national questions. While in many countries social democracy entered the political mainstream in the 1920s, its position was undermined by the rise of right-wing authoritarianism. In turn, the Great Depression made the communist position more plausible, but the Stalinization of communist parties and the imposition of socialist realism alienated most intellectual supporters. Eventually, some radical leftists turned against the communist movement attacking its dogmatism and the Stalinist show trials. At the same time, the rise of Nazism forced leftist groups to seek a common ground, first in the form of “Popular Front” ideology, and, during the war, in the form of armed partisan movements.


Significance Rajoelina faces a wide array of challenges as he looks towards the final two years of his current presidential term. These include severe tensions within his inner circle, a substantial economic crisis, problems linked to his management of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a major humanitarian crisis. Impacts Increasing domestic and international pressure will lead to an opening of borders, possibly by October. The planned vaccine campaign will not prevent a new wave of COVID-19 infections. Economic recovery will be slow.


1999 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-149

We welcome Brazil's announcement of a strong fiscal adjustment program to strengthen Brazil's public finances. It is essential that Brazil implement their program promptly and convincingly.


2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (Supplement) ◽  
pp. 36-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albrecht Ritschl

AbstractThe Great Recession of 2008 hit the international economy harder than any other peacetime recession since the Great Contraction after 1929. Soon enough, analogies with the Great Depression were presented, and conclusions were drawn regarding the political response to the slump. This paper is an attempt to sort out real and false analogies and to present conclusions for policy. Its main hypothesis is that the Great Recession resembles the final phase of the Great Contraction between 1931 and 1933, characterized by a fast spreading global financial crisis and the breakdown of the international Gold Standard. The same is also true of the political responses to the banking problems occurring in both crises. The analogy seems less robust for the initial phase of the Great Depression after 1929. The monetary policy response to the Great Recession largely seems to be informed by the monetary interpretation of the Great Depression, but less so by the lessons from the interwar financial crises. As in the Great Depression, policy appears to be on a learning curve, moving away from a mostly monetary response toward mitigating counterpart risk and minimizing interbank contagion.


Stanovnistvo ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danilo Sukovic

This paper analyzes the mutual dependence of the labor market and the population, since the supply of the labor force depends on population size and its structure. The demographic aspects of the labor market are especially analyzed and it is shown that the supply of the labor force does not depend only on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the population but that the mutual dependence of the labor market and demographic factors are much more complex and multiply expressive. An analysis of the key trends on the labor market presented in this paper indicates that the global economy requires an increasingly flexible labor force. In that sense, the forecasts of numerous economists and sociologists are based on the conviction that more and more people in future will become workers with a portfolio. They will posses a certain number of skills and qualifications which they will use to transfer from one job on to another during their working life. A continuous profession, namely a steady career, in today's sense of the word, will only a relatively small number of people have. It all goes in favor of the theory that having a 'job for your whole working life' is becoming a thing of the past. In this paper it is further concluded that for tracing the path for an efficient labor market, it should be considered that, during the nineties of the last century, there has been an increase in poverty and a change in population structure, not only because of a large inflow of refugees and internally displaced persons, but due to emigration of the younger population and an increase of the old, ill and dependant persons. All these changes greatly influenced the supply of the labor force, in a quantitative and qualitative way, and thus the strategy for increasing employment should be adjusted. The rapid expansion of the underground-informal economy must be added to all this, which grew rapidly in the nineties of the last century, naturally to the detriment of the formal sector. This paper especially stresses that the economic crisis has large unfavorable consequences on our labor market. The estimation of numerous experts indicate that after the economic recovery and end of the economic crisis, unemployment will still be very high and that the recovery of the labor market will be the slowest, namely that the effects of the economic recovery will reflect the slowest on the labor market, namely employment increase. For this reason it will be necessary to stimulate the reformative processes of the labor market so as to increase its efficiency and thus create conditions to rationally engage the large working potential of Serbia's population, which is one of the key prerequisites for larger economic growth and development.


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