Continuity Budgets as Electoral Strategy

Governments facing low growth increasingly deploy ‘continuity budgets’: many small, low‑value measures plus deferred cuts that signal steadiness to markets while preserving political cover. These packages prioritize short‑term electoral optics over coherent growth strategy, narrowing policy room and normalizing technical managerialism instead of structural change. — Recognizing this tactic reframes debates about ostensibly transformational manifestos versus the incidental, tactical policymaking that actually governs between elections.