Integration at What Price? The Erosion of National Democracy in the Euro Periphery

2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Matthijs
Keyword(s):  
Crisis Response ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Monetary Integration ◽  
Euro Crisis ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
The Core ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
Policy Solutions ◽  
The Eu

The euro crisis brought back a widening gap in prosperity between the eurozone’s core and periphery members, but also revealed a divergence in the strength of its national democracies. This article examines the amplified tension between progressively uprooted national markets governed by a supranational technocracy and nationally organized democratic politics in the eurozone’s periphery. Building on Dani Rodrik’s globalization ‘trilemma’, this article explains the weakening of national democratic institutions in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy since 2008. While the periphery states were forced to choose monetary integration at the expense of both democracy and sovereignty, this trade-off was mostly absent in the core. The eurozone’s policy solutions to the crisis did not allow for any democratic input, were implemented through opaque and often-undemocratic throughput processes, and resulted in deteriorating output. The article concludes that the EU crisis response made euro membership in the periphery less compatible with national democratic principles.

scholarly journals Euro Crisis and the EMU Institutional Reforms

Equilibrium ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jarosław Kundera
Keyword(s):  
Euro Area ◽  
Debt Crisis ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Monetary Integration ◽  
Banking Union ◽  
Fiscal Policies ◽  
Euro Crisis ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
Political Union ◽  
The Eu

The main goal of this article is to find the answer for the question about the necessary reform to be undertaken in the EU to save the euro as a common currency. The author envisages three scenarios of the euro area’s future development. In his opinion, the most probable one are the institutional reforms in the euro area. The essential element of the reform is to establish a proper mix between the ECB’ monetary policy and fiscal policies in the member states. All proposed steps against the euro crisis are mutually correlated: monetary integration requires stricter fiscal integration, fiscal integration requires banking union, but banking union is going to require some form of a political union. This way the debt crisis in the euro area may present an opportunity to renew the strength of the European institutions.

Between entrepreneurs and workers: Cleavages and compromises in rationales and policy solutions regarding ‘dependent contractors’

2021 ◽  
pp. 0143831X2110303
Author(s):  
Louis Florin ◽  
François Pichault
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Narratives ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
Narrative Policy Framework ◽  
Policy Solutions ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Labour Regulation

The emergence of dependent contractors challenges the existing institutions regarding social protection and labour regulation. This article aims at identifying the political narratives that explain the emergence of New Forms of Employment (NFE) and dependent contracting along with the policy solutions proposed by the social partners at the EU and international level. By analysing policy documents from the social partners through the lens of a qualitative version of the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF), the authors indentify two distinct narratives – ‘devaluation of work’ and ‘entrepreneurship and flexibility’. The authors show how these rationales lead to various policy solutions and identify oppositions and possible compromise.

scholarly journals Why does the European Right accommodate backsliding states? An analysis of 24 European People’s Party votes (2011–2019)

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-187
Author(s):  
Lise Esther Herman ◽  
Julian Hoerner ◽  
Joseph Lacey
Keyword(s):  
National Level ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
People's Party ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
European People’S Party ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
National Governments ◽  
Fundamental Values ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Eu

AbstractOver the last decade, the EU’s fundamental values have been under threat at the national level, in particular among several Central and Eastern European states that joined the EU since 2004. During this time, the European People’s Party (EPP) has been criticized for its unwillingness to vote for measures that would sanction the Hungarian Fidesz government, one of its members, in breach of key democratic principles since 2010. In this paper, we seek to understand how cohesive the EPP group has been on fundamental values-related votes, how the position of EPP MEPs on these issues has evolved over time, and what explains intra-EPP disagreement on whether to accommodate fundamental values violators within the EU. To address these questions, we analyse the votes of EPP MEPs across 24 resolutions on the protection of EU fundamental values between 2011 and 2019. Our findings reveal below-average EPP cohesion on these votes, and a sharp increase in the tendency of EPP MEPs to support these resolutions over time. A number of factors explain the disagreements we find. While the EPP’s desire to maintain Fidesz within its ranks is central, this explanation does not offer a comprehensive account of the group’s accommodative behaviour. In particular, we find that ideological factors as well as the strategic interests of national governments at the EU level are central to understanding the positions of EPP MEPs, as well as the evolution of these positions over time. These results further our understanding of the nature of the obstacles to EU sanctions in fundamental values abuse cases, and the role of partisanship in fuelling EU inaction especially.

Analysis of Advanced PWR Loading Schemes for Transuranic Incineration in Thorium

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin A. Lindley ◽  
N. Zara Zainuddin ◽  
Fausto Franceschini ◽  
Geoffrey T. Parks
Keyword(s):  
Temperature Coefficient ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
Detrimental Effect ◽  
Spatial Separation ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
The Core ◽  
Positive Reactivity ◽  
Fuel Pin ◽  
Control Rods

It is difficult to perform multiple recycle of transuranic (TRU) isotopes in PWRs as the moderator temperature coefficient (MTC) tends to become positive after a few recycles and the core may have positive reactivity when fully voided. Due to the favorable impact on the MTC and void coefficient fostered by use of thorium (Th), the possibility of performing Th-TRU multiple-recycle in reduced-moderation PWRs (RMPWRs) is under consideration. The simplest way to reduce the moderation in a PWR is to increase the fuel pin diameter. This configuration improves the trade-off between achievable burn-up and MTC, but is ultimately limited by thermal-hydraulic constraints. Heterogeneous recycle with the bred uranium (U3) and the TRU are arranged in separate pins was found to be neutronically preferable to a homogeneous configuration. Spatial separation also enables the U3 and TRU to be refueled on different batch schemes. These techniques allow satisfactory discharge burn-up while ensuring negative MTC and fully voided reactivity, with the pin diameter of a standard PWR increased from 9.5 mm to 11 mm. Reactivity control is a key challenge due to the reduced worth of neutron absorbers and their detrimental effect on the void coefficients, especially when diluted, as is the case for soluble boron. It seems necessary to control the core using control rods to keep the fully voided reactivity negative. A preliminary analysis indicates that this is feasible.

«Where We Are Strong…»

2011 ◽  
pp. 44-57
Author(s):  
S. Pogorelskaya
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Euro Crisis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Future Role ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Eu

The article describes the transformation of German policy towards the European Union after the reunification of Germany, German proposals to overcome the Euro crisis of 2010–2011 and the future role of Germany in the EU.

Lost in uncertainty: How the Euro crisis affected European identity constructions in national media discourses

2018 ◽  
Vol 81 (6-8) ◽  
pp. 602-622
Author(s):  
Dennis Lichtenstein ◽  
Christiane Eilders
Keyword(s):  
Financial Stability ◽  
European Identity ◽  
Market Regulation ◽  
Euro Crisis ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Identity Constructions ◽  
Weekly Newspapers ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Media Discourses ◽  
The Eu

The Euro crisis has revealed severe conflicts between EU member states and challenged a shared European identity. This article investigates how the crisis was reflected in identity constructions in media discourses in EU key countries. European identity construction is conceptualized as framing of the EU in favour or against belonging to the EU and togetherness with other members. Conducting a systematic content analysis of two weekly newspapers and magazines in Germany, France and the UK, we compare identity constructions between 2011 and 2014. Findings show that while support of belonging to the EU is low in general, the countries differ remarkably in terms of their sense of togetherness. This particularly applies to strong or weak political integration, market regulation or market freedom and financial stability or impulses for economic growth. The positions reflect long-term political conflicts between the countries but are also flexible enough to adapt to the particular event context.

The Discourses on Post-National Governance and the Democratic Deicit Absent an EU Government

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cesare Pinelli
Keyword(s):  
Time Frame ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Accountability ◽  
Joint Decision ◽  
The Core ◽  
Commission President ◽  
The Eu

The enduring joint decision trap in the absence of European government – Postnational constitutionalism – The dismissal of politics – Accountability of government before parliament at the core of representative democracy – Internalising the benefits and of externalising the disadvantages of staying together in the Union possible as long as political accountability is not ensured in the EU system – Breathing political life into the EU through constitutional practice without formal Treaty amendment – A time-frame for approval of treaty amendments – EP and the election of Commission president

Democratic Institutions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sumit Ganguly ◽  
William R. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Political Agitation ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Self Rule ◽  
Democratic Principles

This chapter looks at Indian democratic institutions. Contrary to popular belief, the British did little or nothing to promote the growth of democratic institutions in India. Instead, Indian nationalists from the late nineteenth century onward successfully appropriated liberal-democratic principles from the United Kingdom and infused them into the Indian political context. Under the influence of Mohandas K. Gandhi in the 1930s, these beliefs and principles were disseminated to a broad swath of India's population via the Indian National Congress, the leading nationalist political party. As this was occurring, the British colonial regime was losing few opportunities to thwart or at least contain the growth of democratic sentiment and practice in India. The Indian nationalists can justifiably claim that each step toward self-rule and democratic governance was the result of sustained and unrelenting political agitation against authoritarian colonial rule.

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