ebook img

Societies in Transition: Economic, Political and Security Transformations in Contemporary Europe PDF

235 Pages·2015·3.7 MB·English
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview Societies in Transition: Economic, Political and Security Transformations in Contemporary Europe

Savvas Katsikides · Pavlos I. Koktsidis E ditors Societies in Transition Economic, Political and Security Transformations in Contemporary Europe Societies in Transition ThiS is a FM Blank Page Savvas Katsikides • Pavlos I. Koktsidis Editors Societies in Transition Economic, Political and Security Transformations in Contemporary Europe Editors Savvas Katsikides Pavlos I. Koktsidis Department of Social and Department of Social and Political Sciences Political Sciences University of Cyprus University of Cyprus Nicosia Nicosia Cyprus Cyprus ISBN 978-3-319-13813-8 ISBN 978-3-319-13814-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-13814-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2015936345 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London # Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Contents 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Pavlos I. Koktsidis and Savvas Katsikides Part I Economics 2 EMU and the Process of European Integration: Southern Europe’s Economic Challenges and the Need for Revisiting EMU’s Institutional Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Eleftherios Thalassinos and Georgios Dafnos 3 Unemployment in Mediterranean EU Countries: Fighting Youth Unemployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Hardy Hanappi 4 The Impact of the Eurozone Crisis on a Periphery Country: The Case of Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Franco Praussello 5 Economic Transition in Romania: A Completed Process? . . . . . . . 87 Luminița Șoproni and Ioan Horga 6 Impact on European Union Studies of the Developing EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreements with Third Countries: The Case of Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Tatjana Muravska, Alexandre Berlin, and Don Sparling Part II Politics and Security 7 Transitions of Democracy: An Evolutionary Political Economy Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Manuel Wa¨ckerle 8 Crisis and Transition of NGOs in Europe: The Case of Greece . . . 159 Sotiris Petropoulos and Anastasios Valvis v vi Contents 9 Energy Security and the Transformation of Regional Securitization Relations in the Eastern Mediterranean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Constantinos Adamides and Odysseas Christou 10 Terrorism in Transition: The Implications of Cyber-Terrorism . . . 207 Trevor Calafato and Paul Caruana 11 Economic Consequences of Military Expenditure: Evidence from Southern Europe and Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 Darshana Udayanganie and Evangelos N. Charos Introduction 1 Pavlos I. Koktsidis and Savvas Katsikides Amidst a period of increased risk and uncertainty, we ventured to produce a compilation of works on the manifold implications, lessons and new directions raised by the unfolding of the post-2009 crisis in Europe. For the first time since the end of the Second World War, European societies are being confronted with the consequences of a critical economic downturn shaking the established socio- political order. Europe is facing a number of important social, economic and political challenges, as much of the European continent continues suffering from sluggish economic growth or stagnation, difficulties to effectively implement structural reforms and widespread political reactions towards the established polit- ical order. In varying ways, the crisis has strongly impacted societies across Europe. Many people lost their jobs or part of their income as a result of salary cuts, while uncertainty about the future has risen. European citizens demonstrate an increasing lack of confidence and trust in relation to the governance of financial institutions, and the free market overall, but also in relation to democratic institutions and politics at European, national or local levels. Europe’s economic downturn has exposed an unprecedented dichotomy between the ‘disciplined’ European North and the ‘unruly’ European periphery within the EU. Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Cyprus have gone through a painful process of fiscal readjustment with the introduction of austerity measures in return for receiving large European and IMF financial rescue funds and averting the implications of economic collapse. Rescue appeals were made by the EU to the wealthy Euro zone members. The strict bail out conditions that were put in place for the disposal of large rescue funds to the drowning European economies of the South have ultimately triggered major social resentment. At the same time, stereotypical attempts on the causes of the South’s economic unruliness and underperformance have similarly dominated popular narratives across the European North. The P.I. Koktsidis (*) • S. Katsikides Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus e-mail: 2 P.I. Koktsidis and S. Katsikides addition of this new European dichotomy in discussions about European integration comes to complement previous but still largely resilient dichotomies between the industrial North and the agrarian South, the efficient North and the inefficient South, the ‘reasonable’ North and the ‘excessive’ South. Last but not least, Eastern European states have remained particularly vulnerable to the fluctuations and shocks of the international economic system despite variable efforts to align their economies to match with EU standards. Despite entry into the EU, a majority of Eastern European states struggle with low productivity levels, poor welfare systems and high unemployment, and present a markedly lower standard of living to the European average. Therefore, this collection of works does not simply focus on the processes within the EU but takes a much broader view of problems and themes affecting European security and welfare as a whole. Moving beyond cliche´ narratives, we invited a number of distinguished academics to provide us with novel insights into the nexus of economic, political and security repercussions on social transformation, following a period of European-wide recession, and with a view to conceptualize the influence recent economic changes have on traditional political perceptions, organizational pro- cesses, and of course on security and social change in the European periphery. We are delighted to have drawn together important contributions from researchers and academics from across the spectrum of social sciences offering a penetrative account of the speedily evolving European state of affairs. The central idea is to compile research devoted to key questions and aspects of the relationship between various and widely discussed social, political and security rearrangements in order to produce knowledge that encapsulates a range of interrelated subjects. A selected number of authors from research-oriented universities across Europe (Austria, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Latvia, Malta, and the US) examine the possibilities of coping with contemporary concerns of political and economic stability, security, growth, governance and integration from different scientific perspectives, and assess their social implications while taking into account the deepening humanitar- ian misfortunes on a country and regional level. The book’s objective is to build a concise picture of responses to major eco- nomic, political and security challenges affecting the European continent, and explore the impact of a distinctly fundamental phase of transition. Drawing from a carefully selected array of contemporary academic research, this collection of chapters allows for the development of fresh insights into the social repercussions of transition from traditionally established organizational practices and political perceptions to new forms of collaboration, integration and governance. In this respect, it is hoped that our collection of studies will be of key interest to those involved in inner and interdisciplinary research in diverse fields of social, economic and political studies. 1 Introduction 3 1.1 The Origins of Transition The trans-national repercussions of the US credit crunch crisis in Europe exposed the inadequacy of dominant perceptions with regards to the endurance and agility of the international financial system and the banking sector. The spiralling effect of the 2008 credit crunch in the US has marked the opening of a Pandora’s Box for Europe’s most vulnerable economies. Within the EU, Ireland was the first Eurozone country to encounter the financial rumblings caused by a long-swelling bubble burst in the real estate sector. When the housing bubble burst, Ireland’s government requested for a European rescue package to be delivered in order to recapitalize banks with taxpayers assuming private debts. In a rather different way, Greece and Portugal were devastated by the recession of economic activity, as they were overly exposed to external market borrowing and home-grown structural deficiencies. Inability to borrow from international capital markets and the need to sustain the growing disequilibrium between revenues and expenditures threatened the economies of Greece and Portugal with collapse. Both countries faced a critical dilemma, as they were called to choose between a tough spend-cutting programme with socially devastating consequences in return for subsistence loans from a consortium of rescue mechanisms, or face the sweep- ing consequences of economic default. Spain and Italy formed a sufficient political consensus to implement demanding fiscal discipline policies to their economies in return for lax bail-out packages. The dreadful puzzle of Euro-zone failures expanded to include Cyprus. Faced with significant liquidity shortages and exposed to the toxic Greek market finances, Cyprus endured an unprecedented ‘haircut’ of private savings followed by a complete restructuring of its national banking system. The outbreak of the sovereign debt crisis in the European South is the result of a composite mixture of external and internal conditions. Surely, international capital markets stalled as a result of the US financial contraction and mortgage crisis of 2008. Yet the freezing of funds by international capital markets collided with the intrinsic fragility of indebted economies due to their excessive borrowing practices and poor defences against the repercussions of an increasingly interdependent financial system, which accelerated the likelihood of systemic failure. States that were overly exposed to external borrowing and with a low capacity to respond effectively in the event of major systemic imbalances in global financial activity were most vulnerable to the consequences of global financial contraction and collapse. Demands by the EU and the IMF to rectify the deficiencies embedded in the internal economic systems of the endangered Euro-zone members became part and parcel of the rescue package conditions for Greece, Portugal and Cyprus. Funds were transferred to the countries on conditions of implementing drastic public expenditure cuts, reducing public sector workforce, accelerating privatizations and rationalizing the management and distribution of public revenues. The process of reforming the state has given way to an ‘in-between’ socio-economic vacuum of deepening recession, shrinking public provisions and skyrocketing unemployment,

See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.