Planning in the face of austerity: risk and opportunity in the Portuguese planning system
Date
2016
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Publisher
AESOP
Abstract
Austerity has been one of the defining features of contemporary political economies in both sides of the North Atlantic. Enforced as the primary policy response to the succession of financial crises erupting in the protracted aftermath of the 2008 global recession, the reach and influence of what is now increasingly recognized to be a “dangerous idea” (Blyth 2013, see also Krugman 2012 or Mendoza 2014, amongst many others) has been and continues to be widespread. Few countries, however, have been hit harder than Portugal. Severely affected by the European sovereign debt crisis that began at the end of 2009, the center-left government then in power initiated measures to curb the budget deficit in mid-2010. While these initiatives did little to counter the rapid growth of public debt, in May 2011 an austerity-ridden adjustment program was signed with the EU and the IMF. But that was not enough. When in the following month the right came to power, the new prime-minister famously pledged to “go beyond” the requirements of the bailout agreement.
Description
Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
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All Rights Reserved