EU diktat served as cover for elites’ own pre-existing austerity preferences.

Evidence

National governments hardly needed convincing on this score: austerity had already won their hearts long ago. … 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. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 111

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Austerity is a recurring policy suite that entrenches wealth and private primacy — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 21; Europe’s Social Democrats and Christian Democrats embraced austerity as crisis policy — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 168; EU conditionality gave national elites political cover for austerity reforms they already wanted — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 111

Broader Connections

• Europe’s Social Democrats and Christian Democrats embraced austerity as crisis policy #corroborates (0.82) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 168
• Austerity is a recurring policy suite that entrenches wealth and private primacy #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 21