Convergence on Crisis? Comparing Labour and Conservative Party Framing of the Economic Crisis in Britain, 2008‐14

Since the 1980s, Britain's two largest political parties have been converging ever closer on the political spectrum, in line with a Downsian model of two party majoritarian systems. While both Labour and the Conservatives have been moving toward consensus, we investigate the extent to which the recent financial crisis, understood as a critical juncture, interrupted this movement. Using a “fuzzy set” ideal type analysis with claims-making data, we assess whether or not we can detect any signs of this consensus breaking down as a result of the crisis and the events which followed. Our results show that despite this most critical event, consensus was maintained as we found both parties adopting very similar framing and narrating strategies on the economic crisis in their public discourse. The study concludes that the shared discursive framing and narrating between both parties on the crisis demonstrates a continued Thatcherite, neoliberal consensus in British politics. Related Articles in this Special Issue Temple, Luke, Maria T. Grasso, Barbara Buraczynska, Sotirios Karampampas, and Patrick English. 2016. “Neoliberal Narrative in Times of Economic Crisis: A Political Claims Analysis of the U.K. Press, 2007-14. ” Politics & Policy 44 (3): 553–576. http://onlinelibrary.wiley. com/doi/10.1111/polp.12161/abstract Giugni, Marco, and Maria T. Grasso. 2016. “How Civil Society Actors Responded to the Economic Crisis: The Interaction of Material Deprivation and Perceptions of Political Opportunity Structures. ” Politics & Policy 44 (3): 447–472. http://onlinelibrary.wiley. com/doi/10.1111/polp.12157/abstract Lahusen, Christian, Maria Kousis, Johannes Kiess, and Maria Paschou. 2016. “Political Claims and Discourse Formations: A Comparative Account on Germany and Greece in the Eurozone Crisis. ” Politics & Policy 44 (3): 525–552. http://onlinelibrary.wiley. com/doi/10.1111/polp.12162/abstract Related Media ITV News. 2011. “Conservative Party Conference: Cameron's Debt Promise. ” YouTube. https://youtu.be/vJ9RfDr6DVg Financial Times. 2014. “Miliband Toughens Stance on Deficit. ” YouTube. https://www.youtube. com/watch? v=ZVY0t_FSN4s Desde la decada de 1980, los dos partidos politicos mas grandes de Gran Bretana se han concentrado cada vez mas en el espectro politico, esto de acuerdo al modelo Downsiano de un sistema con dos partidos mayoritarios. Mientras el partido Laborista y Conservador se han dirigido hacia un consenso, investigamos a que grado la crisis financiera, entendida como un cambio estructural, ha afectado este movimiento de convergencia. Usando un analisis de “conjunto difuso” ideal con informacion de discursos, analizamos si es posible o no detectar signos del colapso de esta convergencia como resultado de la crisis y los eventos que siguieron. Nuestros resultados muestran que, a pesar de este evento critico el consenso se mantuvo ya que ambos partidos adoptaron estrategias de narrativa similares sobre la crisis economica en su discurso publico. Este estudio concluye que el discurso y narrativa sobre la crisis que comparten ambos partidos demuestra una continuacion de la ideologia neoliberal de Thatcher en la politica britanica.