The influence of foreign elite rhetoric: National identity, emotions, and attitudes toward austerity

Abstract

How does foreign elite rhetoric affect citizens’ emotions and attitudes about austerity? In a survey experiment conducted on the online blogs of the two major Italian newspapers, participants read a fictional news article where the German Chancellor addressed Italians. Across treatments, I varied whether the message blamed or praised Italians, and whether the message focused on economic or symbolic concerns. Praise generated enthusiasm whereas blame spurred anger and anxiety. Moreover, respondents with a strong national or European identity who read a message of praise were more enthusiastic, less angry, and less opposed to austerity. Finally, people who identify strongly with the nation reacted more to economic messages whereas those who identify strongly with Europe reacted more to symbolic messages. The results suggest that rhetoric by a prominent European leader can influence citizens’ emotions and attitudes toward austerity in the emerging European public sphere.

Bottom-Up Sovereign Debt Preferences

“…Together, these results indicate that public preferences on sovereign debt policy are not solely a product of ego-tropic or top-down elite rhetoric, as previous work has found (Barnes and Hicks, 2018;Bansak et al, 2021;Bisgaard and Slothuus, 2018;Del Ponte, 2021). Many citizens appear to rely on intuitive folk economic beliefs about household finance and personal morality, consistent with recent accounts from evolutionary political psychology (Petersen, 2015;Boyer and Petersen, 2018).…”

“…Our findings hold clear relevance for scholars studying the roots of support for debt consolidation through austerity and related attitudes toward sovereign debt repayment. The literature currently provides strong evidence for top-down mechanisms and ego-tropic reasoning Hicks, 2021, 2018;Nelson and Steinberg, 2018;Del Ponte, 2021;Curtis, 2014). Our findings suggest that this is not the entire story.…”

“…This has largely been conducted by Comparative Political Economy (CPE) researchers focusing on European politics since the Eurozone Crisis and with an explicit focus on austerity. The emerging consensus is that the public often relies on top-down elite cues from the media (Barnes and Hicks, 2018) or politicians (Bansak et al, 2021;Bisgaard and Slothuus, 2018;Del Ponte, 2021) to form opinions on debt consolidation. Notably, Bansak et al (2021) find that co-partisan cues can increase support for austerity packages by 10-20%.…”

Till austerity do us part? A survey experiment on support for the euro in Italy

“…This process also occurred in Germany, where citizens followed party cues on international bailouts, as Stoeckel and Kuhn (2018) demonstrate. Moreover, Del Ponte (2020) finds that rhetoric by foreign leaders can influence policy preferences for austerity and the EU in Italy, although this is conditional on national and European identity. We thus expect that blame attribution influences support for euro exit.…”