Talking about competition? Discursive shifts in the economic imaginary of competition in public debates

Stephan Puehringer (stephan.puehringer@jku.at), Laura Porak and Johanna Rath
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Stephan Puehringer: Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria
Laura Porak: Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Stephan Pühringer

No 123, ICAE Working Papers from Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy

Abstract: In this paper, we apply a discourse analytical framework to explore the performativity of the economic concept of competition in public policy discourses. We focus on the role of professional economists as opinion leaders to analyze how concepts of competition have entered public discourses. The main economic imaginary ascribes to competition the function of a primary mode for economic and social coordination, ensuring prosperity and wealth. Competitiveness is predominately interpreted not as a means but an end in itself. Furthermore, three partly conflicting discursive positions on how competition should be organized arise in the discourse: first, the neoliberal position interprets every non-efficient market outcome as the result of institutional intervention, hindering effective competition; second, the ordoliberal position of fair competition evaluates governance intervention positively, as long as they promote the functioning of competition; third, the Keynesian position promotes corrected competition, i.e. diverse policy intervention to compensate for market failure outcomes.

Keywords: competition; competitiveness; media debates; consulting; economic experts; critical discourse analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2021-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hme and nep-pke
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