New MPIfG Book: Austerity from the Left by Björn Bremer

The latest title to be added to the MPIfG Books series is Austerity from the Left: Social Democratic Parties in the Shadow of the Great Recession (Oxford University Press, 2023). In his book, Björn Bremer traces how austerity became the predominant fiscal policy response to the Great Recession in Europe, with even the center-left abandoning its deficit spending plans and accepting austerity. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods, the author draws on a wide range of empirical evidence to study both the demand- and the supply-side of politics. He takes the example of the British Labour Party and the German SPD to show how a complex interplay between electoral and ideological pressures pushed social democratic parties towards orthodox fiscal policies. Björn Bremer has been a senior researcher in the Political Economy Research Area at the MPIfG since 2019.