Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s 2022 Growth Plan sent the markets into meltdown, the ramifications of which are still felt almost a year on. Using process tracing, this paper seeks to explain the...Show moreLiz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s 2022 Growth Plan sent the markets into meltdown, the ramifications of which are still felt almost a year on. Using process tracing, this paper seeks to explain the policy choices of the Growth Plan by adopting a discursive institutionalist approach. First, this paper investigates the influence of ideas held by the two key decision-makers, Truss and Kwarteng, and finds that ideas they held for over a decade significantly influenced many of the Growth Plan’s policies. Secondly, this paper explores the influence of ideas furthered by right- leaning think tanks on the policies of the Growth Plan. The results indicate that, while there are limitations to think tank influence, it is likely that the ideas of right-leaning think tanks played a significant role in shaping the policies of the Growth Plan. Causal mechanisms lie at the heart of this paper, responding to calls for a greater emphasis on the causal mechanisms linking ideas to policy outcomes (Campbell, 2002; Jacobs, 2009). Therefore, the results contribute to the body of literature investigating the explanations for economic policymaking and seeks to provide new findings for the literature which is engaged in a fractious debate about the role of think tanks in policymaking.Show less
