IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wus005/6248.html

"Piketty is a Genius, but...": An Analysis of Journalistic Delegitimation of Thomas Piketty's Economic Policy Proposals

Author

Listed:
  • Rieder, Maria

  • Theine, Hendrik

Abstract

The continuous rise of socio-economic inequality over the past decades with its connected political outcomes such as the Brexit vote in the UK, and the election of Donald Trump are currently a matter of intense debate both in academia and in journalism. A significant sign of the heightened interest was the surprise popularity of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century. The book reached the top of the bestseller lists and was described as a "media Sensation" and Piketty himself as a "rock star Economist". This paper, drawing from a major international and cross-disciplinary study, investigates the print media treatment in four European countries of economic policy proposals presented in Capital. Applying social semiotic and critical discourse analysis, we specifically focus on articles which are in disagreement with these proposals and identify five categories of counterarguments used against Piketty: authorisation, moralisation, rationalisation, portrayal of victimhood and inevitability. Providing textual and linguistic examples we demonstrate how the use of linguistic resources normalises and conventionalises ideology-laden discourses of economic means (taxation) and effects, reinforcing particular views of social relations and class as common sense and therewith upholding and perpetuating power relations and inequalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Rieder, Maria & Theine, Hendrik, 2018. ""Piketty is a Genius, but...": An Analysis of Journalistic Delegitimation of Thomas Piketty's Economic Policy Proposals," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 263, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wus005:6248
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://epub.wu.ac.at/6248/
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Colander, David C. & Föllmer, Hans & Haas, Armin & Goldberg, Michael & Kirman, Alan & Jusélius, Katarina & Lux, Thomas & Sloth, Brigitte, 2009. "The financial crisis and the systemic failure of academic economics," Kiel Working Papers 1489, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    2. Christoph Schinke, 2015. "Capital in the 21st Century and Bias in German Print Media," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 16(01), pages 35-39, May.
    3. N. Gregory Mankiw, 2015. "Yes, r > g. So What?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 43-47, May.
    4. David Harvey, 2014. "Afterthoughts on Piketty's," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(5), pages 81-86.
    5. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2014. "Inequality in the long run," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-01053609, HAL.
    6. Werner Eichhorst, 2015. "The Unexpected Appearance of a New German Model," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 53(1), pages 49-69, March.
    7. Eero Vaara, 2014. "Struggles over legitimacy in the Eurozone crisis : Discursive legitimation strategies and their ideological underpinnings," Post-Print hal-02313233, HAL.
    8. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-01053609 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Wade, Robert Hunter, 2014. "The Piketty phenomenon: why has Capital become a publishing sensation?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60118, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Christian Grimm & Jakob Kapeller & Stephan Puehringer, 2017. "Zum Profil der deutschsprachigen Volkswirtschaftslehre: Paradigmatische Ausrichtung und politische Orientierung deutschsprachiger Oekonom_innen (On the current state of German-speaking Economics: Paradigmatic orientations and political alignments of ," ICAE Working Papers 70, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    11. Stephan Puehringer & Katrin Hirte, 2013. "The financial crisis as a tsunami Discourse profiles of economists in the financial crisis," ICAE Working Papers 14, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    12. Pirmin Fessler & Martin Schürz, 2018. "Private Wealth Across European Countries: The Role of Income, Inheritance and the Welfare State," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 521-549, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Theine, Hendrik, 2019. "The media coverage of wealth and inheritance taxation in Germany," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 290, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    2. Hendrik Theine, 2019. "The media coverage of wealth and inheritance taxation in Germany," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp290, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    3. David Strauss & Daniel Ventosa-Santaularia, 2023. "Does r-g cause wealth inequality? The case of the United States/¿La r-g causa la desigualdad de la riqueza? El caso de Estados Unidos," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 38(2), pages 183-224.
    4. Patrick Mellacher, 2021. "Growth, Inequality and Declining Business Dynamism in a Unified Schumpeter Mark I + II Model," Papers 2111.09407, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.
    5. Estrada, Fernando, 2015. "Antinomies de Le Capital au XXIe siècle [Antinomies of Capital in the 21st Century]," MPRA Paper 61126, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Graupe, Silja & Steffestun, Theresa, 2018. ""The market deals out profit and losses": Wie ökonomische Standardlehrbücher das unreflektierte Denken in Metaphern fördern," Working Paper Serie des Instituts für Ökonomie Ök-38, Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung (HfGG), Institut für Ökonomie.
    7. Bertrand Garbinti & Jonathan Goupille-Lebret & Thomas Piketty, 2017. "Income Inequality in France, 1900-2014: Evidence from Distributional National Accounts," Working Papers 201704, World Inequality Lab.
    8. Thomas Theobald, 2015. "Agent-based risk management – a regulatory approach to financial markets," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 42(5), pages 780-820, October.
    9. Pedro R. D. Bom & Aitor Goti, 2018. "Public Capital and the Labor Income Share," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-17, October.
    10. Komlos John, 2019. "Reaganomics: A Watershed Moment on the Road to Trumpism," The Economists' Voice, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 1-21, December.
    11. Jun, Bogang & Kim, Tai-Yoo, 2015. "A neo-Schumpeterian perspective on the analytical macroeconomic framework: The expanded reproduction system," Hohenheim Discussion Papers in Business, Economics and Social Sciences 11-2015, University of Hohenheim, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences.
    12. Stephan Puehringer, 2021. "Zur Pluralitaet der oekonomischen Politikberatung in Deutschland," ICAE Working Papers 132, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    13. Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés & Lee, Neil & Lipp, Cornelius, 2020. "Golfing with Trump: social capital, decline, inequality, and the rise of populism in the US," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 106530, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Oscar Claveria & Petar Sorić, 2025. "Economic uncertainty and the redistributive effect of taxes and transfers in the UK and the US since the 1980s," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 45(1), pages 130-137.
    15. Xiong, Ning & Wei, Yehua Dennis, 2025. "Economic inequality, intergenerational mobility, and life expectancy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 366(C).
    16. Justus Haucap & Johannes Muck, 2015. "What drives the relevance and reputation of economics journals? An update from a survey among economists," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 103(3), pages 849-877, June.
    17. Bonnet, Odran & Chapelle, Guillaume & Trannoy, Alain & Wasmer, Etienne, 2021. "Land is back, it should be taxed, it can be taxed," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    18. Dirk Helbing, 2013. "Economics 2.0: The Natural Step towards A Self-Regulating, Participatory Market Society," Papers 1305.4078, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2013.
    19. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/56k383m9o9kpb1g6f8rvv74ok is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Dirk Antonczyk & Thomas DeLeire & Bernd Fitzenberger, 2018. "Polarization and Rising Wage Inequality: Comparing the U.S. and Germany," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-33, April.
    21. Peter J. Boettke & Alexander W. Salter & Daniel J. Smith, 2018. "Money as meta-rule: Buchanan’s constitutional economics as a foundation for monetary stability," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(3), pages 529-555, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wiw:wus005:6248. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: WU Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://research.wu.ac.at/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.