”Numerot voivat näyttää sataa, mutta juna ei kulje”

Populaarin verkkokeskustelun perspektiivi kansalliseen velkakulttuuriin ja kestävän taloudenpidon ehtoihin

Authors

• Juhana Venäläinen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30666/elore.79301

Abstract

This article examines the necessity to reduce public debt as a political idea, which sprouts in the expert discourse of politics and economy but is also supported by more broadly shared notions of the responsible management of economic affairs. In particular, the article seeks to unveil how the quotidian understandings of the preconditions of economic sustainability support the political argument of the necessity to reduce public debt. The research material consists of 1060 comments regarding debt and government budget balance, which were collected from online news articles.

In the analysis, three discursive formations – rationalities of the dread of debt – are constructed, all of them together supporting the comprehensibility and acceptability of the political idea of reducing public debt: 1) economy as neutral facts; 2) economy as taking moral responsibility; and 3) economy as setting boundaries to politics. In addition, the article exposes counter-discourses that seek to challenge these rationalities. In conclusion, the article shows that behind the debate on public debt it is possible to recognise deeply-rooted principles that express common notions about the relations between economy, politics, and morals.