The ‘pathologically state dependent’ versus ‘middle-aged ministers on mammoth salaries’: The legitimation contest over a 2013 austerity measure in the Republic of Ireland

Abstract

This paper provides a discourse analysis of the political and media debate surrounding a 2013 austerity measure that targeted unemployed young people in the Republic of Ireland. Applying Van Leeuwen’s ‘justificatory schema’ it reveals the legitimation of this measure relied on an ‘anti-welfare populist’ framing of the young unemployed as ‘welfare dependent’ and thus ‘undeserving’. Furthermore, this analysis finds that those opposed to this austerity measure sought to de-legitimate it and to re-legitimate the young unemployed. At times by singling out alternative ‘undeserving’ figures to be targeted with austerity in their place. This process thus remained open to contestation and resignification, albeit in a manner that failed to challenge the underlying political-economic logic at play. The antagonistic framings revealed by these findings complicate the emphasis on ‘de-politicisation’ in the pre-existing literature using discourse analysis methods to investigate the legitimation of austerity.