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There is no alternative

For the 2008 biography of Margaret Thatcher, seeThere Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters.

"There is no alternative"(TINA) is a political slogan originally arguing thatliberal capitalismis the only viable system. At the turn of the 21st century the TINA rhetoric became closely tied toneoliberalism,and its traits ofliberalizationandmarketization.Politicians used it to justify policies ofeconomic liberalism(orfiscal conservatism) andausterity.[1]The slogan is strongly associated with the policies and persona ofMargaret Thatcher,theBritish prime ministerand leader of theConservative Partyduring the 1980s,[2]and, asGerman:alternativlos,withAngela Merkel,who served asChancellor of Germanyfrom2005until2021.[3]

A 1994Christian Democratic Unionposter with the sloganEs gibt keine Alternative( "There is no alternative" )

Researchers ofpopulismgenerally agree that its growth since the 1990s is the result of political elites accepting certain concepts (likefree market) as unalterable truths and the associated disappearance of the political discord (so-calledpost-politics). This created a virtual "party cartel",where the views of established parties did not differ on policies. A rise in dissatisfaction with these policies coupled with a lack of opposition to them by mainstream parties[3]has led to the rise of new populist parties, such asAlternative for Germany[4]andViktor Orbán's post-2016 version ofFideszin Hungary.[5]

Political strategy

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TINA (as characterized by explicit use of "there is no alternative" and declarations of necessity, inevitability, and irrefutability of certain policies) can be considered apolitical strategyin both democratic and autocratic regimes. Its rhetoric allows politicians to reduce the scope of available policy choices, limiting the expectations of their electorate and avoiding the blame for bad, but "unescapable" policies.[6]

TINA allows decisions to appear not as a political choice, but as a matter of adherence to universal truth and common sense. Due to the switch from public deliberations to following the expert opinions, debates are shortened, and therefore input of an individual voter is diminished, so TINA is politicallypaternalistic.[7]

On the negative side, applying TINA might create an impression of politicians' toothlessness, prompting voters to try addressing their grievances outside ofthe establishmentwhich appears to be not in control and being a hostage to external factors and "disciplinary regimes" of eitherIMFandWorld Bank(with theirWashington Consensus), orEU Commission.[8]

History of use

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19th century

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Historically, the phrase may be traced to its emphatic use by the 19th-centuryclassical liberalthinker and Social-DarwinistHerbert Spencerin hisSocial Statics.[9][non-primary source needed]

Thatcher

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In a speech to the Conservative Women's Conference on 21 May 1980, Thatcher appealed to the notion saying, "We have to get our production and our earnings into balance. There's no easy popularity in what we are proposing but it is fundamentally sound. Yet I believe people accept there's no real alternative." Later in the speech, she returned to the theme: "What's the alternative? To go on as we were before? All that leads to is higher spending. And that means more taxes, more borrowing, higher interest rates more inflation, more unemployment."[10]

The slogan was often used by Thatcher.[citation needed][11]The phrase is used to signify Thatcher's claim that themarket economyis the best, right and only system that works, and that debate about this is over. One critic characterized the meaning of the slogan as: "Globalised capitalism, so called free markets and free trade were the best ways to build wealth, distribute services and grow a society's economy. Deregulation's good, if not God."[12]By contrast, Thatcher described her support of markets as flowing from a more basic moral argument; specifically, she argued that the market-principle of choice flows from the moral principle that for human behavior to be moral requiresfree choiceby people.[11]

Astrid Séville[de]notes the curious mix of Thatcher's use of neoliberal rhetoric of individual empowerment and the paternalistic tilt of TINA.[7]Although Thatcher became – and remained for many years – a deeply polarizing politician, her legacy in Great Britain carried through bothThird WayandNew Labourperiods, starting a "TINA era".[13]

2010s austerity

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Angela Merkel's use of the termalternativlos(literally "alternative-less"; without alternative) in relation to her responses to theEuropean sovereign-debt crisisin 2010 led to the term becoming "un-word of the year".[14]

In 2013, Prime MinisterDavid Cameronresurrected the phrase, stating "If there was another way I would take it. But there is no alternative" —referring toausterity in the United Kingdom.[15]Christine Lagarde,then Managing Director of the IMF, declared in May 2013 that "there is no alternative to austerity", seconded by France's Prime MinisterJean-Marc AyraultinFrench:Il n’y a pas d’alternative à la politique menée.[16]

The crisis had exposed a rift between the euro rescue packages and political realities: in 12 out of 15 cases the governments that implemented austerity measures were voted out,Euroscepticand populist parties enjoyed a quick boost in popularity. In response, Eurozone turned to the "federalism of executive bodies", pushing the decision authority up to theEuropean Commission,forming diverse coalitions united mostly by the pro-Euro stance of parties, squashing referendum proposals.[17]TINA rhetoric was used as a "shielding mechanism" to depoliticize the discourse, yet it backfired spectacularly in Germany with many voters fleeing toAlternative for Germanyin an attempt to re-politicize theeuro crisis.[18]

Criticism

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Opponents of TINA policies used the phrase in a derisory manner. For instance, cabinet ministerNorman St John-Stevas,one of the leading "wets",nicknamed Thatcher" Tina ", after the acronym TINA.[19]The critic of globalizationSusan Georgecoined the opposing slogan "another world is possible" in 2001.[20][21]

See also

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References

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  1. ^Séville 2017,p. 450.
  2. ^Robinson, Nick (7 March 2013)."Economy: There is no alternative (TINA) is back".bbc.BBC News.Retrieved9 May2022.
  3. ^abvan Eeden 2019,p. 709.
  4. ^Berbuir, Lewandowsky & Siri 2015.
  5. ^van Eeden 2019.
  6. ^Séville 2017,pp. 451–452.
  7. ^abSéville 2017,p. 456.
  8. ^Séville 2017,p. 452.
  9. ^Spencer, Herbert (1851).Social Statics.John Chapman. pp. 42, 307.
  10. ^Thatcher, Margaret (21 May 1980)."Speech to Conservative Women's Conference".margaretthatcher.org.Margaret Thatcher Foundation.Retrieved9 May2022.
  11. ^abBerlinski, Claire (8 November 2011).There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters(2nd ed.). Basic Books.ISBN978-0465031214.
  12. ^Flanders, Laura(12 April 2013)."At Thatcher's Funeral, Bury TINA, Too".The Nation.Retrieved8 February2016.
  13. ^Séville 2017,p. 457.
  14. ^Schlosser, Horst Dieter (18 January 2011)."Zum 20. Mal 'Unwort des Jahres' gewählt"(PDF)(Press release) (in German). Sprachkritische Aktion Unwort des Jahres. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 27 January 2018.Retrieved13 January2021.
  15. ^Robinson, Nick (7 March 2013)."Economy: TINA is back".BBC News.Retrieved11 September2020.
  16. ^Séville 2017,p. 449.
  17. ^Séville 2017,pp. 462–463.
  18. ^Séville 2017,pp. 464–465.
  19. ^"Lord St John of F awsl (a ta đã chết) ey, former Tory minister, dies at 82".The Guardian.5 March 2012.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved3 April2024.
  20. ^"Another World Is Possible".Dissent Magazine.Retrieved28 October2020.
  21. ^"Marx from the Margins: A Collective Project, from A to Z"(PDF).Krisis(2). 2018. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 22 September 2020.Retrieved28 October2020.

Sources

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  • Berbuir, Nicole; Lewandowsky, Marcel; Siri, Jasmin (3 April 2015). "The AfD and its Sympathisers: Finally a Right-Wing Populist Movement in Germany?".German Politics.24(2):154–178.doi:10.1080/09644008.2014.982546.ISSN0964-4008.
  • van Eeden, Pepijn (2019). "Discover, Instrumentalize, Monopolize: Fidesz's Three-Step Blueprint for a Populist Take-over of Referendums".East European Politics and Societies: And Cultures.33(3):705–732.doi:10.1177/0888325418800548.ISSN0888-3254.
  • Séville, Astrid (2017). "From 'one right way' to 'one ruinous way'? Discursive shifts in 'There is no alternative'".European Political Science Review.9(3):449–470.doi:10.1017/S1755773916000035.ISSN1755-7739.
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