Growth models and the question of popular legitimacy

Amit Avigur-Eshel, Dani Filc

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

One of the novelties brought into contemporary political economic analysis by the burgeoning growth model literature is that legitimacy is inherent to the politics of growth. However, the way popular legitimacy is understood in this literature remains limited to discursive acts, namely public discourse by state officials and political parties. We argue, instead, that growth model legitimation towards groups outside the dominant social bloc also includes material (re-)distribution measures. Furthermore, these measures may not necessarily be in line with growth requirements or with growth-model logic, and may even be counter-productive to those requirements. We demonstrate our arguments by analyzing the Israeli case, where legitimacy problems of an export-led growth model led the government to implement legitimacy-seeking policies that included the liberalization of consumer-goods imports and of credit for households and small business.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1032-1047
Number of pages16
JournalGlobalizations
Volume20
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2023

Keywords

  • Growth model
  • export-led growth
  • legitimacy
  • liberalization
  • social bloc

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • Sociology and Political Science
  • Public Administration
  • General Economics, Econometrics and Finance
  • Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

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