Conclusion

Abstract

AbstractThis concluding chapter recaps the book’s core themes, distilling the politics of technocratic economic governance and illuminating the value of a politics of economic method lens for exploring political contestation over economic ideas and how they are used in practice by the experts charged with pronouncing on the economy’s health. It lays out how the OBR’s narrating the economy entails the social construction of sound fiscal policy, reflecting on how economic and fiscal orthodoxy is a contingent historical phenomenon. It questions the possibility of fiscal oversight at the non-normative end of the spectrum, and revisits tensions between British politics and Europe in terms of the paradox of neoliberal democracy. Considering the enduring appeal of technocratic economic governance, discussion assesses future challenges for the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), notably those posed by Britain’s recent democratic deterioration eroding parliamentary and judicial accountability of the executive. The impunity, serial lying, and law-breaking of the British government encouraged under Boris Johnson made it harder for independent oversight bodies like the OBR to hold government fiscal policy to account. With the dawn of ‘post-truth’ politics, the sinews linking the doctrine underpinning economic policymaking to fact, evidence, economic reason, and logic became much more elastic. This is a challenging environment for technocratic economic governance institutions to execute their oversight mandates and render economic policy choices more accountable. Finally, it considers how technocratic economic governance and economic forecasting can respond to the additional uncertainties and non-linear dynamics of the major public policy challenge of the twenty-first century—the climate crisis.