Deconstructing Austerity
by
Howard Richler
Austerity – a much despised
term. Judging by the manner the word is ejaculated by some people you’d get the
impression that it represents a form of financial waterboarding. For most
people it represents the methods that a government uses in order to get their
financial houses in order whether this means cutting social services, pensions
or the public payroll.
Like the words “liberal,”
“democracy” and “terrorist” when used in political and economic contexts, the
meaning of “austerity” is almost automatically processed in accordance with
your socio-political beliefs. Naturally,
if you're a resident of a lender country such as Germany, you're more likely to
ascribe a positive sense to the concept than if you're a denizen of a borrowing
debt-ridden country such as Greece. Actually, the word austeritat is
rarely used in German and the term usually employed is sparpolitik,
“savings policy.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed her disdain for
the A-word: “I call it balancing the budget. Everyone else uses the term
‘austerity.’ That makes it sound… truly evil.”
Austerity represents one of the biggest political and economic
buzzwords, and like many words in these spheres, its meaning often depends on
where you position yourself on the political spectrum. To those on the right,
it represents living within ones means and austerity measures represent strict
policies that are undertaken by a government to help bring expenditures in line
with revenues. This can be accomplished by a combination of spending cuts and
increases in taxes or fees. To those on the left, however, austerity often
designates causing economic hardship by denying social services to those in
need. They might argue that it is much easier for the wealthy to “tighten their
belts” and that belt-tightening for the poor effectively leads to the suffering
of the most vulnerable in society.
Although we associate austerity chiefly with economics this is a relatively new development in the history of the word.
Although we associate austerity chiefly with economics this is a relatively new development in the history of the word.
The term came into the
English language from the French austerité in the early part of the 15th
century, but ironically it can be traced back to the Greek austeros,
“severe”, or “dour.” Its first meaning was sternness of manner or appearance
and severity of judgement, particularly of a law. Before long it took on a
religious sense where it referred to self-denial, moral strictness or rigorous
abstinence. This is the sense used by Shakespeare in Midsummer Night's Dream
when Theseus says, “Or, on Diana's altar to protest, For aye, austerity and
single life.”
By the 17th
century the harshness associated with the word was extended to taste where it
came to denote sourness or bitterness and within a hundred years it also
referred to severe weather or bleak, rugged landscapes.
It is only in the 20th
century that it acquired its economic sense. The OED states that in this
domain it refers to “restraint in public spending; spec. a programme of
government measures designed to reduce public spending and conserve resources,
esp. during a time of economic hardship; the conditions resulting from such
measures. The term entered common use in 1942, and was freq. used in the
context of rationing and other measures introduced by governments in the period
of and after the Second World War (1939-45).”
The first citation for this
sense came from economist John Maynard Keynes who in 1937 wrote in The Times,
“The boom, not the slum, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.” In 1942 the Manchester Guardian stated
“His (Stafford Cripps, Chancellor of the Exchequer) declaration that the
Government intended to treat the present grave situation with all the
'seriousness and austerity' it demands was loudly cheered” and the same year The
Economist wrote “There has been no word about the new government's attitude
towards reconstruction and planning for defence, production, and austerity have
inevitably filled the stage.”
By 1945, although the term
originated in French the economic sense of austerité spread to France
and by 1947 this meaning also extended to Italy and Germany.
Interestingly, as austerity
is often associated nowadays with governments to the right of the political
spectrum, after World War II it became the hallmark of the economic policies of
the Labour government of the United Kingdom between 1945-51. In The Age of Austerity,
edited by Philip French and Michael Sissons, we learn that because this
period in the UK was marked by severe food and coal shortages, rationing was
instituted to guarantee a minimum standard of living for the masses. There was
scant expenditure on unnecessary luxuries, such as movies imported from
Hollywood. Tobacco was excluded from this schema as not to do so might have
caused a revolution and tobacco represented a much needed source of tax
revenue.
Although the economic sense
is the dominant one today, we occasionally see other senses. For example, an
article in the February 18, 2015 National Post talked about a
promotional movie made for Benjamin Netanyahu's Facebook page that showed the
supposed dowdiness of his Jerusalem residence to counter claims of his
extravagance. The article said that the movie “painted a picture of domestic
austerity bordering on squalor.”
Perhaps it is unfortunate
that the term originally used to denote restraint during economic downturns is
so laden with associations of self-denial and severity today.
Richler's latest book Word
Play: Arranged & Deranged Wit will be published by Ronsdale Press next
spring.
