Leiden University Student Repository

Teran, Sabinka (2026)

Fiscal Policy and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Mexico: Moralizing Austerity in President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Mañaneras

Master thesis | International Relations (MA)

This thesis investigates how President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico legitimized his government’s restrained fiscal policy response to the health and economic crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in his public communication. Relying on a qualitative discourse analysis of six mañaneras delivered between March and September 2020, this study demonstrates how López Obrador moralized and justified fiscal restraint and austerity through normative narratives. Drawing on Schmidt’s discursive institutionalism and political economy theories of crises and ideas, the analysis shows how López Obrador constructed austerity as moral governance and delegitimized public debt, framing it as irresponsible and dangerous. Distancing his austerity- based policies from neoliberal predecessors, López Obrador establishes them as a choice rooted in anti-corruption and state responsibility. The findings of this study contribute to existing literature by illustrating the role of discourse in...Show moreThis thesis investigates how President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico legitimized his government’s restrained fiscal policy response to the health and economic crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in his public communication. Relying on a qualitative discourse analysis of six mañaneras delivered between March and September 2020, this study demonstrates how López Obrador moralized and justified fiscal restraint and austerity through normative narratives. Drawing on Schmidt’s discursive institutionalism and political economy theories of crises and ideas, the analysis shows how López Obrador constructed austerity as moral governance and delegitimized public debt, framing it as irresponsible and dangerous. Distancing his austerity- based policies from neoliberal predecessors, López Obrador establishes them as a choice rooted in anti-corruption and state responsibility. The findings of this study contribute to existing literature by illustrating the role of discourse in legitimizing economic policy choices in situations of high social and economic vulnerability.Show less

Fiscal Policy, Austerity, Public Debt, Mexico, COVID-19, Political Communication

Author

Teran, Sabinka

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Global Political Economy

Supervisors

Palacio Ludeña, M.G.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en