P59 - Think-tanks and Their Role During Global Financial Crisis and Great Recession
PANEL Organizers
• Hartwig Pautz (hartwig.pautz@uws.ac.uk), University of the West of Scotland (United Kingdom)
• Dieter Plehwe (dieter.plehwe@wzb.eu), Berlin Social Science Center (Germany)
SUMMARY
The 'Global Financial Crisis' and the subsequent 'Great Recession' were drastic shocks to the economic and political systems of, above all, the European and North American capitalist welfare democracies. The political elites in these countries - and also the elites in supranational bodies such as EU, IWF and World Bank - were under considerable pressure to develop and implement policies that would, first, prevent the repetition of such crises and, second, would deal with their fallouts in the form of budget deficits, currency instability and economic meltdowns. At least, political elites were under pressure to be seen, by the electorate, as taking action to ameliorate the consequences of the 'New Hard Times' and prevent future crises.
This panel invites papers which analyse the role of think-tanks, broadly understood, as producers of policy (discourses) directed at political elites and at the electorate in the crisis following the events of 2007. Themes that papers could address are wide-ranging, but may include analysis of whether think-tanks actually contributed to crisis-related policy debates and decisions (e.g. regarding the systematic creation of 'green jobs'; the re-regulation of the finance sector; steps towards an economic and fiscal union), whether think-tanks played a role in shaping new or defending 'old' understandings of 'economics', the role of think tanks in pushing austerity measures or fighting against them, or whether the Global Financial Crisis and the Great Recession have contributed to a change in the 'civic epistemologies' (Jasanoff) in any of the affected polities.
KEYWORDS
Think tanks, global financial crisis, great recession, hard times, expertise, policy advice, austerity.
ROOM
Sciences Po Lille B2.2
SESSION 1: Studying think-tanks in the arena of the nation state : 10/07/2015 : 09:00-10:30
Chair: Hartwig Pautz (hartwig.pautz@uws.ac.uk), University of the West of Scotland (UK)
Discussant: Dieter Plehwe (dieter.plehwe@wzb.eu), Berlin Social Science Center (Germany)
• A comparative analysis of two British think-tanks and their transformations (2008-2013)
Marcos Gonzalez Hernando (mjg221@cam.ac.uk), University of Cambridge (UK)
• Think-tanks and public policy in Australia
Bert Fraussen and Darren Halpin (bert.fraussen@anu.edu.au; darren.halpin@anu.edu.au), Australian National University (Australia)
• Managing the crisis? The role of think-tanks in the British response to the Global Financial Crisis
Hartwig Pautz (hartwig.pautz@uws.ac.uk), University of the West of Scotland (UK)
SESSION 2: Studying think-tanks in the transnational arena : 10/07/2015 : 11:00-12:30
Chair: Dieter Plehwe (dieter.plehwe@wzb.eu), Berlin Social Science Center (Germany)
Discussant: Hartwig Pautz (hartwig.pautz@uws.ac.uk), University of the West of Scotland (UK)
• Think-tanks and economic crisis in Europe: resilience or change?
Jesper Dahl Kelstrup (kelstrup@ruc.dk), Roskilde University (Denmark)
• Preventing the next financial crisis. The introduction of macroprudential regulation
Carola Westermeier (carola.westermeier@sowi.uni-giessen.de), Justus-Liebig-University Giessen (Germany)
• Saving the dangerous idea. Austerity think-tank networks in the European Union
Dieter Plehwe (dieter.plehwe@wzb.eu), Berlin Social Science Center (Germany)
