Economic crises and policy change in the early 1980s: A four country comparison

This article examines the impact of economic crises on macroeconomic policies in the United States (US), Mexico, Ireland, and Sweden at the start of the 1980s, framed within the context of the policy change literature. These countries are selected for examination as they encompass presidential, parliamentary, republican, constitutional monarchical, federal and unitary systems of governance. Two are European states and two are from the Americas: two are large economies while two are small. Each country’s response to the crisis affecting it, tempered by historical and political factors, provides an insight into that political economy. These findings enable us compare and contrast the nature of each crisis and the policy responses adopted. The value of such comparison is the perspective it offers, contributing to the goal of building a body of increasingly complete explanatory theory (Mahler 1995).