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Making Austerity Popular: The Media and Mass Attitudes toward Fiscal Policy

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  • Lucy Barnes
  • Timothy Hicks

Abstract

What explains variation in individual attitudes toward government deficits? Although macroeconomic stance is of paramount importance for contemporary governments, our understanding of its popular politics is limited. We argue that popular attitudes regarding austerity are influenced by media (and wider elite) framing. Information necessary to form preferences on the deficit is not provided neutrally, and its provision shapes how voters understand their interests. A wide range of evidence from Britain between 2010 and 2015 supports this claim. In the British Election Study, deficit attitudes vary systematically with the source of news consumption, even controlling for party identification. A structural topic model of two major newspapers' reporting shows that content varies systematically with respect to coverage of public borrowing—in ways that intuitively accord with the attitudes of their readership. Finally, a survey experiment suggests causation from media to attitudes: deficit preferences change based on the presentation of deficit information.

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  • Lucy Barnes & Timothy Hicks, 2018. "Making Austerity Popular: The Media and Mass Attitudes toward Fiscal Policy," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 62(2), pages 340-354, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:62:y:2018:i:2:p:340-354
    DOI: 10.1111/ajps.12346
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    Cited by:

    1. DiGiuseppe, Matthew & Del Ponte, Alessandro, 2023. "Bottom-Up Sovereign Debt Preferences," SocArXiv wxr67, Center for Open Science.
    2. Ola G. El‐Taliawi & Nihit Goyal & Michael Howlett, 2021. "Holding out the promise of Lasswell's dream: Big data analytics in public policy research and teaching," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 38(6), pages 640-660, November.
    3. Lucio Baccaro & Björn Bremer & Erik Neimanns, 2021. "Till austerity do us part? A survey experiment on support for the euro in Italy," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(3), pages 401-423, September.
    4. Baccaro, Lucio & Neimanns, Erik, 2021. "Determinants of wage (dis-)satisfaction: Trade exposure, export-led growth, and the irrelevance of bargaining structure," MPIfG Discussion Paper 21/3, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    5. Federico Maria Ferrara & Jörg S Haas & Andrew Peterson & Thomas Sattler, 2022. "Exports vs. Investment: How Public Discourse Shapes Support for External Imbalances," Post-Print hal-02569351, HAL.
    6. Vlandas, Tim & Weisstanner, David, 2022. "Income Stagnation and the Politics of Welfare State Retrenchment in Advanced Economies," SocArXiv 862ua, Center for Open Science.
    7. Alessandro Del Ponte, 2021. "The influence of foreign elite rhetoric: National identity, emotions, and attitudes toward austerity," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(1), pages 155-178, March.
    8. Barnes, Lucy & Hicks, Timothy, 2018. "All Keynesian Now? Public Support for Countercyclical Government Borrowing," SocArXiv pvdeu, Center for Open Science.
    9. Neimanns, Erik & Blossey, Nils, 2022. "From media-party linkages to ownership concentration causes of cross-national variation in media outlets' economic positioning," MPIfG Discussion Paper 22/8, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    10. Hansen, Daniel, 2020. "The effectiveness of fiscal institutions: International financial flogging or domestic constraint?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    11. Maschke, Andreas, 2024. "Talking exports: The representation of Germany's current account in newspaper media," MPIfG Discussion Paper 24/1, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    12. Kantorowicz, Jaroslaw & Collewet, Marion & DiGiuseppe, Matthew & Vrijburg, Hendrik, 2024. "How to finance green investments? The role of public debt," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    13. Federico M Ferrara & Waltraud Schelkle & Zbigniew Truchlewski, 2023. "What difference does the framing of a crisis make to European Union solidarity?," European Union Politics, , vol. 24(4), pages 666-683, December.
    14. Alpino, Matteo & Asatryan, Zareh & Blesse, Sebastian & Wehrhöfer, Nils, 2022. "Austerity and distributional policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 112-127.
    15. Bremer, Björn & Bürgisser, Reto, 2022. "Lower Taxes At All Costs? Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Four European Countries," SocArXiv e6ds9, Center for Open Science.
    16. Gootjes, Bram & de Haan, Jakob, 2022. "Do fiscal rules need budget transparency to be effective?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    17. Federico Maria Ferrara & Jörg Haas & Andrew Peterson & Thomas Sattler, 2020. "Exports vs. Investment: How Public Discourse Shapes Support for External Imbalances ," Working Papers hal-02569351, HAL.
    18. Liza G. Steele & Nate Breznau, 2019. "Attitudes toward Redistributive Policy: An Introduction," Societies, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-12, June.
    19. Ardanaz, Martín & Hübscher, Evelyne & Keefer, Philip & Sattler, Thomas, 2024. "Voter Responses to Fiscal Crisis: New Evidence on Preferences for Fiscal Adjustment in Emerging Markets," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13473, Inter-American Development Bank.
    20. Baccaro, Lucio & Bremer, Björn & Neimanns, Erik, 2023. "What growth strategies do citizens want? Evidence from a new survey," MPIfG Discussion Paper 23/4, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    21. Breyer, Friedrich & Breunig, Christian & Kapteina, Mark & Schwerdt, Guido & Sterba, Maj-Britt, 2024. "Between Beveridge and Bismarck: Preferences for redistribution through public pensions," Working Papers 23, University of Konstanz, Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality. Perceptions, Participation and Policies".

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