Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top

2017 | Book

Introduction Read chapter Read first chapter

The Political Economy of Britain in Crisis

Trade Unions and the Banking Sector

Author: Christopher Kirkland

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Book Series : Building a Sustainable Political Economy: SPERI Research & Policy

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Login to get access
insite
SEARCH

About this book

This book explores two recent crises in British political economy: the crisis of 1976–9, for which the trade unions were impugned, and the 2007 economic crisis, for which bankers were (at least initially) blamed. The author argues that the “crisis resolution” of the former – principally the Thatcherite reforms of the 1980s – led to the emergence of the banking crisis. Further, Kirkland demonstrates how narratives of blame have emerged and were used in both instances to promote specific agendas. Narrations of blame and crises were used to curb the trade union powers in the 1980s, whilst the 2007 crisis was quickly reframed as one of excessive government spending, which in turn has led to policies of austerity.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction
Abstract
This chapter introduces notions of crises. It highlights how crises are perceived as holding both constructivist and materialist elements. It argues that accepted narratives of events combine to constitute/construct a crisis, before exploring how crises are related to concepts such as blame, framing and agenda setting. Furthermore, crises are not necessarily viewed as negative events, but can be utilised by certain actors to promote certain agendas. Hence, it may be beneficial for some actors to highlight/generate notions of crises. This chapter establishes the research questions and hypothesis for the remainder of the study, in particular it hypothesises that the trade unions will be over blamed for the crisis of 1976–1979 and the banking sector will be under blamed for the crisis of 2007.
Christopher Kirkland
Chapter 2. The Trade Union Crisis of 1976–1979
Abstract
Drawing upon the social contract and the Winter of Discontent as case studies, this chapter demonstrates how the media reporting of events, along with narratives of over powerful trade unions from politicians facilitated notions of blame. It asks how trade unions came to be blamed for growing (or perceived) economic problems of the 1970s. It also traces key popular narratives which emerged within the decade and became synonymous with excessive trade union power, such as the famous headline “Crisis? What Crisis?” Finally, the analysis demonstrates how media’s narration of events over emphasised the power of trade unions to create industrial disruption.
Christopher Kirkland
Chapter 3. Placing the Thatcher Reforms in the Context of the Capital/Labour Relationship
Abstract
This chapter considers how the crisis of the 1970s was resolved. The Thatcherite reforms of the 1980s built upon the rhetoric of the 1970s, which—as the previous chapter demonstrates—blamed the trade unions for the wider economic problems. Kirkland outlines the changing relationship between labour and capital in the 1980s, focusing upon the “Right to Buy” housing scheme, the privatisation programme and the Big Bang deregulation of 1986. Finally, this chapter demonstrates how such legislation had the effect of shifting the economic balance of power away from organised labour (and by extension trade unions) towards capital and the owners of capital.
Christopher Kirkland
Chapter 4. The Financial Crisis of 2007
Abstract
The crisis of 2007, which has been described as both a global financial crisis and a banking crisis, is analysed in this chapter. Irrespective of this distinction, this was a crisis for which capital was blamed or initiating. However, as the crisis developed narratives shifted from penalising those who were initially blamed towards strategies of reducing/limiting government/national spending. This shifted the focus of blame away from capital (or the owners of capital) and towards those in receipt of such spending programmes. This chapter charts such narratives and explores how elites, who were initially blamed, managed to avoid and deflect blame.
Christopher Kirkland
Chapter 5. Conclusions
Abstract
Returning to the questions posed in Chap. 1, this chapter offers a comparison between the two crises. It explores how narrations of crises are formulated and how agents or groups who are blamed responded to such accusations, highlighting how blame was shifted to trade unions in the earlier case, and away from the banking sector in the latter one. The author argues that rather than offering a long-term economic solution to latter crisis, through rebalancing the economy away from capital and enhancing the relative powers of labour, current discourse, as in the crisis of 1976–1979, blames labour. This questions how sustainable any resolution to the crisis of 2007 will be.
Christopher Kirkland
Erratum to: The Political Economy of Britain in Crisis
Christopher Kirkland
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
The Political Economy of Britain in Crisis
Author
Christopher Kirkland
Copyright Year
2017
Electronic ISBN
978-3-319-59238-1
Print ISBN
978-3-319-59237-4
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59238-1