They Have No Idea . . . Decision-Making and Policy Change in the Global Financial Crisis

Abstract

Crisis: . . . 3. A vitally important or decisive stage in the progress of anything; a turning point; also, a state of affairs in which a decisive change for better or worse is imminent; now applied esp. in times of difficulty, insecurity, and suspense in politics or commerce. [Oxford English Dictionary (1971: 1178)]

Is the identification of a situation as one of crisis an objective, analytical, or even empirical claim or does it necessarily imply a subjective and hence normative judgment? Should we define crisis in terms of objective factors such as the ‘weight’ of contradictions within a given system or in more subjective terms such as the perception of the need for rapid and decisive intervention in the context of widely experienced political and economic contradiction? [Colin Hay (2001: 203)]

JEL Classification: Z00