Which Way Out? The Politics of Post-Crisis Growth Strategies in the EU Periphery

Arianna Tassinari

The Great Recession called into question the viability of the pre-crisis growth strategies of several European economies. Nonetheless, little is yet known about the political dynamics shaping the strategies of economic recovery that crisis-struck countries have been pursuing since. This project investigates the politics of the post-crisis growth strategies pursued in the aftermath of the Great Recession (2013 onwards) across different countries in the EU periphery. It assumes that the crisis juncture implies that growth models and their underpinning social blocs might be more “up for grabs” than at times of stability. It thus offers an ideal vantage point from which to study how dominant growth coalitions emerge. The project deploys qualitative methods and social network analysis to address the following questions: 1) Do economic and political elites have coherent visions of the post-crisis recovery strategies, and how are these formed? 2) Which coalitions of actors call the shots about post-crisis growth strategies, and how do these coalitions come together? 3) How do prior institutional legacies, structural constraints, and electoral dynamics interact in shaping the trajectory of post-crisis recovery?