The United Kingdom has been at the epicentre of the global financial crisis erupting in 2007. The City of London’s global interconnectedness as well as the long-established culture of regulatory self-independence triggered a near meltdown in the British banking system. Next to the immediate consequences for the British economy as a whole, the financial crisis led to a fundamental change of direction in national economic policies and destabilized a system of politics that had governed financial regulation in the UK for over two decades. The Thatcher administration had replaced the decaying manufacturing industry with a finance-led service sector and hence made the City of London the centrepiece of a self-ruling world based on the principles of privatisation and deregulation. The banking crash in September 2007, however, destroyed the illusion that an economic system which relied on light-touch financial regulation to promote the international competitiveness of the City was competent at the job of securing financial stability. The scale and prolonged effects of the financial crisis provided the central backdrop to the general election in May 2010.
The financial crisis spurred ad-hoc policy responses around the globe and energized efforts to strengthen financial regulation. Instead of focusing solely on the change of policy in financial supervision, the thesis analyses the developments in the public debate on post-crisis banking regulation that has accompanied the general election in 2010.The public opinion is the determinant factor for the ability to win elections – hence politicians must be concerned with the mobilisation of support support for their respective electoral programs. The near collapse of the global banking system destroyed the public confidence in governmental capacities to cope with the effects of the financial crisis. The challenge governments are facing today is not only to find more effective economic policies but to articulate moral visions capable of restoring their legitimacy in difficult times. In the UK, the search for a new legitimizing narrative to restore public confidence in the state as well as market power characterised the electoral campaign of all three major parties. The thesis investigates how the change of government in May 2010 has been perceived by the public and whether a potential replacement of the pre-crisis economic paradigm in favour of a new leitmotif in banking regulation has been the subject of public debate.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Introduction
- The Case - British Economic Policy and the City of London
- Patterns of British Economic Policy - The Conservative Experiment of Margaret Thatcher
- Labour's Ideological Change of Course
- Theoretical Framework - Ideas in the Economic Policy-Making Process
- Who Influences the Policy-Making Process? - State-Centric vs. Pluralist Views
- The Media as Marketplace for Economic Ideas
- Operationalization of the Research Question
- Research Methodology
- Definition: Content Analysis as Empirical-Scientific Method
- Case Selection
- Units of Analysis
- Data and Analysis
- Which topics are emphasized by which newspapers? What were the main topics before and after the election (Q1)?
- Which actors determined the public agenda before and after the election? Did the newspapers provide a forum especially for conservative, liberal, etc. actors (Q2)?
- Which contents were ascribed to the respective parties in the news coverage? What were their main arguments pro and contra banking regulation and have they changed after the election (Q3)?
- Did the newspapers simply express the arguments of different actors or did they articulate additional ideas and arguments (Q4)?
- Did the newspaper's political orientation influence the news coverage? How much space did the different newspapers dedicate to the topic before and after the election (Q5)?
- Regulatory Change - What Happened After the Election?
- Institutional Reform - The New Financial Regulatory Architecture
- Structural Reform - The Independent Commission on Banking
- Reflection & Discussion
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This thesis examines the public debate surrounding post-crisis banking regulation in the United Kingdom following the 2010 general election. The main objective is to assess whether the change in government led to a fundamental shift in public discourse on banking regulation.- The role of the City of London in British economic policy
- The influence of ideas and ideology in economic policy-making
- The media's role in shaping the public agenda on banking regulation
- The evolution of arguments for and against banking regulation
- The impact of political orientation on news coverage of banking regulation
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
The first chapter introduces the context of the research, highlighting the significant impact of the 2007 global financial crisis on the UK economy and political landscape. It explores the historical development of financial regulation in the UK, emphasizing the shift from a manufacturing-based economy to a finance-driven service sector under Margaret Thatcher's leadership. This chapter also introduces the research question: did the change of government in 2010 initiate a fundamental shift in the public debate on banking regulation?The second chapter focuses on the theoretical framework used to understand the role of ideas in economic policy-making. It compares state-centric and pluralist views, examining how different actors influence the policy process. This chapter also discusses the importance of the media as a platform for disseminating economic ideas and shaping public opinion.
The third chapter outlines the research methodology employed in the study. It explains the use of content analysis as an empirical-scientific method, outlining the selection of case studies, units of analysis, and data sources. This chapter prepares the reader for the analysis of newspaper articles that forms the core of the research.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
The key focus areas of this work include post-crisis banking regulation, the City of London, economic policy-making, public debate, media influence, content analysis, and the 2010 UK general election. The research investigates the evolution of arguments for and against banking regulation, the role of different actors in shaping the public agenda, and the impact of political orientation on media coverage.- Citar trabajo
- Katja Philipps (Autor), 2013, Paradigm Shift or Groundhog Day?, Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/233308
