Abstract While research on policymaking during economic crises highlights the role of narratives for policy responses, few studies have examined the impact of crisis narratives after measures to avert the crisis have been implemented. This study addresses this research gap, presenting a case study of the Social Democratic Party of Sweden, which has remained committed to austere fiscal rules over the past three decades. Analyzing its economic policymaking, I argue that the party’s narrative legitimation of the fiscal consolidation programme, designed as a response to the recession of the early 1990s, is central to understanding the party’s enduring commitment to fiscal austerity. Reproducing this narrative has increased the political cost of reorientation and prevented alternative policies from being considered. Theoretically, these arguments demonstrate that narratives of economic crisis can operate as positive feedback mechanisms long after the narrated events have passed.
Niklas Altermark (Tue,) studied this question.