"Democratic control over economics" looks like people voting for more services and lower taxes.

Austerity occurs when the cost of government borrowing becomes so high governments are would be functionally unable to operate in the medium term without brining it down.

After the finance crash the UK was increasing it's debt load at something like 200bn GBP/yr, iirc. A rate that credit-nervous markets wouldnt sustain cheaply.

Austerity is the way the ideologues talk about the consequences of economic collapse without having to learn anything.

What you never hear from them is alternative policies that address the specific economic problems periods of austerity are solving. You hear instead about ever more elaborate abstractions that ever less map on to any observed reality.