Tiago Moreira Ramalho | Université libre de Bruxelles (original) (raw)

Papers by Tiago Moreira Ramalho

Research paper thumbnail of The Troika in its own words: responding to the politicisation of the southern European crises

Journal of European Integration, 2020

The ‘post-functionalist’ view that growing politicisation constrains further integration (‘constr... more The ‘post-functionalist’ view that growing politicisation constrains further integration (‘constraining dissensus’) occupies a prominent place in contemporary European studies. However, in the case of the euro crisis, we observe a rise in contentious politics concomitant with a deepening of EU integration, namely in the areas of economic governance. This paper argues that the intervention of the ‘Troika’ in the struggles over the framing of the southern European crises is a key to this puzzle. The analysis of over 1200 public declarations produced by the three institutions from 2009 to 2016 shows that the Troika actively ‘responded’ to processes of heightened politicisation, reproducing the dominant crisis narrative of the southern European periphery and making the case for the adequacy and inevitability of austerity. The Troika’s success in framing the euro crisis as a result of domestic failure and moral hazard contributed to the legitimation of further integration of European economic governance.

Research paper thumbnail of What do we talk about when we talk about the EU? A topic modelling approach to Portuguese and Spanish newspapers during the crisis

EUROGLOB Working Papers, 2016

Book chapters by Tiago Moreira Ramalho

Research paper thumbnail of Compétitivité

Colin Hay and Andy Smith (eds.) Dictionnaire d'Economie Politique (Presses de Sciences Po), 2018

Book Reviews by Tiago Moreira Ramalho

Research paper thumbnail of "Who Will Care For Us? Long-Term Care and the Long-Term Workforce" - Compte Rendu

Revue Française de Science Politique, 2018

Research paper thumbnail of Capitalism in Social Movements Studies: A definitional problem

Thesis Chapters by Tiago Moreira Ramalho

Research paper thumbnail of Legitimating Austerity: The Crisis of Southern European Welfare Capitalism

Doctoral thesis, 2020

This thesis proposes an investigation of the legitimation of austerity in Greece, Portugal, and S... more This thesis proposes an investigation of the legitimation of austerity in Greece, Portugal, and Spain, in the period from 2009 to 2016. The research stems from the questioning of two influential approaches to the political economy of austerity during the Eurozone crises. The first sees austerity as an inevitability. Indebted to the ‘new politics’ literature on the welfare state, this approach understands austerity in southern Europe as an economic imperative. The second approach, informed by the literature on ‘disciplinary neoliberalism’, sees austerity as an external imposition forced upon southern European countries by a combination of market actors and foreign powers. Whereas the former builds on ontological premises that ultimately lead to the naturalisation of political outcomes, the latter fails to capture the complexity of the politics of austerity at the domestic level.
In turn, this research offers a reinterpretation of austerity in southern Europe that sees it as a political project construed and contested at the domestic, international, and transnational levels. The investigation is guided by the following question: how was austerity legitimated as a response to the southern European crises of the 2010s? Through the qualitative analysis of a substantial corpus of public declarations, parliamentary debates, and policy documents, combined with descriptive statistics, and semi-structured interviews, the thesis proposes an interpretive tracing of the processes of (de-)legitimation of austerity in the three countries during the period.
The thesis explores the construction of the southern European crisis narratives and their embedding in the crisis response, especially in the conditional financial assistance programmes negotiated between the countries and the Troika of European Commission, ECB, and IMF. This is followed by an analysis of how the austerity evolved as the policies were implemented and their outcomes observed, on the one hand, and as the radical critique of the social movement against austerity became increasingly institutionalised.
The in-depth analysis of the three cases sheds new light on how these crises were construed and on the discursive foundations for the legitimation of austerity as the only appropriate response to the economic predicaments in southern Europe.

Research paper thumbnail of The Troika in its own words: responding to the politicisation of the southern European crises

Journal of European Integration, 2020

The ‘post-functionalist’ view that growing politicisation constrains further integration (‘constr... more The ‘post-functionalist’ view that growing politicisation constrains further integration (‘constraining dissensus’) occupies a prominent place in contemporary European studies. However, in the case of the euro crisis, we observe a rise in contentious politics concomitant with a deepening of EU integration, namely in the areas of economic governance. This paper argues that the intervention of the ‘Troika’ in the struggles over the framing of the southern European crises is a key to this puzzle. The analysis of over 1200 public declarations produced by the three institutions from 2009 to 2016 shows that the Troika actively ‘responded’ to processes of heightened politicisation, reproducing the dominant crisis narrative of the southern European periphery and making the case for the adequacy and inevitability of austerity. The Troika’s success in framing the euro crisis as a result of domestic failure and moral hazard contributed to the legitimation of further integration of European economic governance.

Research paper thumbnail of What do we talk about when we talk about the EU? A topic modelling approach to Portuguese and Spanish newspapers during the crisis

EUROGLOB Working Papers, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Compétitivité

Colin Hay and Andy Smith (eds.) Dictionnaire d'Economie Politique (Presses de Sciences Po), 2018

Research paper thumbnail of Legitimating Austerity: The Crisis of Southern European Welfare Capitalism

Doctoral thesis, 2020

This thesis proposes an investigation of the legitimation of austerity in Greece, Portugal, and S... more This thesis proposes an investigation of the legitimation of austerity in Greece, Portugal, and Spain, in the period from 2009 to 2016. The research stems from the questioning of two influential approaches to the political economy of austerity during the Eurozone crises. The first sees austerity as an inevitability. Indebted to the ‘new politics’ literature on the welfare state, this approach understands austerity in southern Europe as an economic imperative. The second approach, informed by the literature on ‘disciplinary neoliberalism’, sees austerity as an external imposition forced upon southern European countries by a combination of market actors and foreign powers. Whereas the former builds on ontological premises that ultimately lead to the naturalisation of political outcomes, the latter fails to capture the complexity of the politics of austerity at the domestic level.
In turn, this research offers a reinterpretation of austerity in southern Europe that sees it as a political project construed and contested at the domestic, international, and transnational levels. The investigation is guided by the following question: how was austerity legitimated as a response to the southern European crises of the 2010s? Through the qualitative analysis of a substantial corpus of public declarations, parliamentary debates, and policy documents, combined with descriptive statistics, and semi-structured interviews, the thesis proposes an interpretive tracing of the processes of (de-)legitimation of austerity in the three countries during the period.
The thesis explores the construction of the southern European crisis narratives and their embedding in the crisis response, especially in the conditional financial assistance programmes negotiated between the countries and the Troika of European Commission, ECB, and IMF. This is followed by an analysis of how the austerity evolved as the policies were implemented and their outcomes observed, on the one hand, and as the radical critique of the social movement against austerity became increasingly institutionalised.
The in-depth analysis of the three cases sheds new light on how these crises were construed and on the discursive foundations for the legitimation of austerity as the only appropriate response to the economic predicaments in southern Europe.