Center-left parties’ embrace of austerity fueled the European populist upsurge

Evidence

For politicians like Antonis Samaras, Mario Monti, and Mariano Rajoy, austerity was no bitter pill: it was perfectly in line with their own orthodoxy. For others, little persuasion was required. George Papandreou and Matteo Renzi, for instance, exemplars of social democratic converts to the benefits of commodification, simply had to carry out some ideological adjustments. This would turn out to be decisive among the causes of the populist upsurge: alongside the socio-economic consequences of austerity, the ideological convergence of mainstream parties and the center-left betrayal would establish a crucial connection, in protesters’ minds, between the crisis of democracy and the crisis of the economy. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 111

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to theories about how mainstream convergence on neoliberal orthodoxy hollows out democratic representation — echoes the reader’s earlier material on social democratic betrayal narratives. — connects to: Post-2008 austerity discredited center-left parties and radicalized a generation into populism — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 25; Center-left parties lost their social bases and legitimacy, creating the vacuum populism filled. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 28; Austerity-driven left challengers displaced collapsing social democratic parties across Europe — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 96 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Europe’s center-left parties enacted the first austerity programs and allied with the center-right #corroborates (0.85) — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 116
• Europe’s Social Democrats and Christian Democrats embraced austerity as crisis policy #corroborates (0.82) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 168
• Unequal austerity generates populism, nationalism, and violent movement instead of revenue #corroborates (0.82) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 63
• Left-populist parties across countries followed an identically scripted rise and fall #expands (0.80) — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 161
• European austerity’s doom loop discredited center-left parties while US growth held #corroborates (0.80) — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 25
• Austerity spans party lines and is often wielded by nominally left governments #qualifies (0.75)
• Even avowedly socialist parties have embraced austerity at critical junctures #qualifies (0.72) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 364