Political resistance to fiscal stability institutions: The case of Romania

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the revealed resistance to fiscal stability institutions recently showed by Romanian politicians. Establishing the context, the design of the present-day institutional environment for fiscal stability is investigated, with special attention being paid to its legal protection against political pressure. Typical opinions recently expressed by key political actors on certain issues related to fiscal stability are analyzed and categorized into a number of main arguments. To this end, insights from the political discourse analysis field are employed as tools for decoding the political meaning of written and spoken text. The public debates around the 2015-2016 tax cut program are presented as a case study for the investigation of political resistance to settled fiscal stability institutions.Keywords: fiscal stability; fiscal governance; political discourse analysis; Romania