Voter responses to fiscal austerity

Autor(en)

Evelyne Hübscher, Thomas Sattler, Markus Wagner

Abstrakt

Governments have great difficulties designing politically sustainable responses to rising public debt. These difficulties are grounded in a limited understanding of the popular constraints during periods of fiscal pressure. For instance, an influential view claims that fiscal austerity does not entail significant political risk. But this research potentially underestimates the impact of austerity on votes because of strategic selection bias. This study addresses this challenge by conducting survey experiments in Spain, Portugal, Italy, the UK and Germany. In contrast to previous findings, the results show that a government's re-election chances greatly decrease if it proposes austerity measures. Voters object particularly strongly to spending cuts and, to a lesser extent, to tax increases. While voters also disapprove of fiscal deficits, they weight the costs of austerity policies more than their potential benefits for the fiscal balance. These findings are inconsistent with the policy recommendations of international financial institutions.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Staatswissenschaft

Externe Organisation(en)

Central European University Budapest, Universität Genf

Journal

British Journal of Political Science

Band

51

Seiten

1751-1760

Anzahl der Seiten

10

ISSN

0007-1234

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123420000320

Publikationsdatum

09-2020

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

506014 Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Political Science and International Relations

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/f889b40d-d9e2-4d29-9075-c44da9ee4127