Whilst there is ample precedent to argue against the common-sense notion that the ideological leanings of political parties are congruent with their implementation of fiscal policy (Boix, 2000; Garrett & Lange, 1991; Hibbs, 1977; Liargovas & Manolas, 2007), there is a relative dearth of research on the role of discourse in shaping fiscal policy with one notable exception by Maatsch (2014). With this in mind, we approach the issue of examining fiscal policy through a fixed, contested and subverted within particular texts” (Howarth, 2005, p. 341). This paper examines how the future is constructed in Irish budget speeches delivered between 1970-2015 using a combination of close readings and collocate analysis of the word future over four subcorpora.
We commence with a brief overview of extant literature on the role of discourse in policy process analysis before outlining our methodological approach. This is followed by an overview of key results and analysis, concluding with discussion and final remark
