Narratives of Crisis: Sustaining Austerity Policy in Southern Europe

The financial crisis that first emerged in the US in 2007 and unfolded new dynamics within the European Union since 2010 has been addressed by austerity policies and tightened financial supervision. Social and political repercussions in debtor states in Southern Europe continue to be neglected, and alternative policy scenarios mobilised by movements and parties like Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain, so far, did not gain leverage. The paper raises the question why this approach to the resolution of the European economic and social crisis has been sustained rather than others and searchers for answers applying the lens of Narrative Policy Analysis (Stone 2012, Fischer 2003, Hajer 1992). Narrative Policy Analysis assumes that policy-making results from participants’ narrative and intersubjective sense-making, instead of from objective pressures only, and involves the definition of past causes, future consequences and characters being to blame or to put in charge. In line with these assumptions, the paper reconstructs causal stories about crisis in core declarations issued by EU institutions, the International Monetary Fund, and governments and opposition movements in Spain and Greece during the years 2010-2015. Attributions of causation and responsibility differ strongly depending on the crisis resolution proposed. Yet, most causal stories map into a larger narrative that puts the Greek sovereign debt crisis as a beginning, puts the blame on governments in Southern Europe, and refers to competitiveness and European belonging to enhance the persuasiveness of the policy scenario proposed. This meta-narrative of the Eurozone crisis effectively disables efforts at redefining policies of crisis resolution.