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Comparing rhetorics of crisis. Italy and the United Kingdom at the turn of the 1970s

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  • Alberti, Manfredi
  • Telesca, Giuseppe

Abstract

This paper aims at challenging a consolidated reading of the 1970s as an age of crisis par excellence, from the perspective of Britain and Italy. It focuses on both real economic facts and their interpretation by economists, “second hand dealers in economic ideas” and policy makers. We reflect on the actors who “proclaimed” the crisis in the 1970s and the recipes they suggested to overcome it. We argue that the rise of neoliberalism and the paradigm change in economic policies were also the product of a narrative construction, influenced by political and ideological reasons, which contrasted an extremely negative picture of the 1970s to a very positive, nearly caricatural, representation of the 1980s.

Suggested Citation

  • Alberti, Manfredi & Telesca, Giuseppe, 2025. "Comparing rhetorics of crisis. Italy and the United Kingdom at the turn of the 1970s," MPRA Paper 126624, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:126624
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    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/126624/1/MPRA_paper_126622.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    4. Crafts, Nicholas, 1996. "Deindustrialisation and Economic Growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(434), pages 172-183, January.
    5. Vecchi, Giovanni, 2017. "Measuring Wellbeing: A History of Italian Living Standards," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199944590.
    6. Daniel Stedman Jones, 2012. "Masters of the Universe: Hayek, Friedman, and the Birth of Neoliberal Politics," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9827.
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    JEL classification:

    • B0 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - General
    • N1 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations

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