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209 Pages·2001·46.586 MB·English
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The Politics of Europe Also by Wemer B01w{efrl A MAJOR CRISIS: The Politics of Economic Policy in Britain in the 1990s (co-autllor) GLOBAL CAPITAL, NATIONAL STATE AND THE POLITICS OF MONEY (co-editor) OPEN MARXISM, Volume 1: Theory and Practice (co-editor) OPEN MARXISM, Volume II: Dialectics and History (co-editor) OPEN MARXISM, Volume III: Emancipating Marx (co-editor) POST-FORDISM AND SOCIAL FORM (co-editor) THE POLITICS OF CHANGE (co-editor) THE RECOMPOSITION OF THE BRITISH STATE DURING TilE 1980s The Politics of Europe Monetary Union and Class Edited by Werner Bonefeld Lecturer i11 Politics U11iversity of York pal grave macmillan * Editorial matter, selection and Chapters 1, 4 and 7 10 Werner Bonefeld 2001 Chapters 2, 3, 5 and 6 C> Palgrave Publishers ltd 2001 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing .Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1 P OLP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be Identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2001 by PALGRAVE Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin's Press LLC xholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 978-1-349~2435-1 ISBN 978-0-333-98129-0 (eBook) 00110.1057/9780333981290 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging. pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British library. library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The politics of Europe : monetary union and class I edited by Werner Bonefeld. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and Index. ISBN 978-0-333-92010-4 1. Monetary unions-Europe. 2. Social dass-furope. I. Bonefeld. Werner. 1960- HG3894 .P654 2000 305.5'~c21 10 9 8 7 6 s 4 3 2 1 10 09 08 07 06 OS 04 03 02 01 CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne Contents List of Tables vii Notes on the Contributors viii The Politics of Europe: Monetary Union and Class Wemer Bonefeld The chapters 7 Notes 8 Bibliography 9 2 The Contradictions of European Monetary Union 10 Alex Callinicos Franco-German rivalries and the Maastricht Treaty 12 A monetarist project 16 ational tensions 20 Europe versus America? 25 Conclusion 30 Notes 34 Bibliography 35 3 The EMU, Monetary Crises, and the Single Eurpopean Currency 37 Guglielmo Carchedi Introduction 37 Economic crises, money, and inflation 37 Exchange rates and monetary crises 39 The European monetary union and the single currency 46 The 1994-95 monetary crisis 52 Conclusions 58 Notes 58 Bibliography 62 4 European Monetary Union: Ideology and Class 64 Wemer Bonefeld Preface 64 Introduction 65 European monetary integration in historical context 68 Class and the crisis of capitalist accumulation 74 v vi Contents Neo-liberalism, crisis and institutional reform 79 The politics of EMU 86 Conclusion 97 Notes 102 Bibliography 103 5 The EC's Free Market Agenda and the Myth of Social Europe 107 Bernard H. Moss Justifications for the EC: peace and prosperity? 108 Academic Europhilia: a sociology of knowledge 111 Treaty foundations: law and history 112 Judicial enforcement: the new liberal order 115 The failure of constructive integration 117 The myth of the social dimension 124 Links of the social to the democratic deficit 128 Conclusion 130 Notes 131 Bibliography 131 6 The European Union and its Periphery: Inclusion and Exclusion 136 Mike Haynes Rich and poor Europe 136 Economic convergence and divergence 143 Europe and its other 155 Soft security borders and identity 158 Notes 164 Bibliography 166 7 Britain and the Question of Europe 170 Werner Bonefeld EMU and disarray 171 Monetarism and the search for an anchor 173 Globalization and European integration 180 Conclusion: EMU and employability 184 Notes 187 Bibliography 189 Index 193 List of Tables 6.1 Characteristics of the economies of the European Union 131 6.2 Range of values of regional per capita GDP in PPS for NUTS 2 regions in the EU member states in 1996 139 6.3 Characteristics of selected economies on the border of the European Union 141 6.4 Long run GDP per capita in 1990 international dollars in European Union members and periphery countries, 1820-1992 144 vii Notes on the Contributors Werner Bonefeld teaches at the Department of Politics, University of York. Alex Callinicos is Professor of Politics at the University of York. Guglielmo Carchedi teaches at the University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics and Econometrics. Mike Haynes teaches at the School of Humanities, Language and Social Sciences, University of Wolverhampton. Bernard Moss is Professor of History associated with the Institute of European Studies in London. viii 1 The Politics of Europe: Monetary Union and Class Wemer Bonefeld Assessments of the politics of European integration in general, and monetary union in particular, are many. In fact, the study of the European Union has become an academic growth industry. This book does not add just another publication. Its theoretical focus and practical perspective are specific. The volume provides a critique of the political economy of European integration. The aim is not just to supply an alternative approach to the study of the politics of Europe but also to contribute to a renewal of Marxist critique of the politics of European integration.• This book does not explore the politics of European integration in terms of the well-worn theme of 'pro- or anti-Europeanism'. There is no doubt that the major parties are in broad agreement over most policy questions. This broad agreement corresponds with an uninspiring uniformity that characterizes most aspects of contemporary debate. However, if there is, in Britain, one issue which does divide, not only between the Right and Left but also within the Right and within the Left, it is the issue of European integration. Yet, however heated the debate between Eurosceptics and Europhiles, and whatever 'insights' the claims and counterclaims might offer, it adds little, if anything at all, to the understanding of European integration. In fact, it sheds no light on the reasons for European integration. In this debate even the most elementary question of a critical analysis associated with the great Eur opean tradition of the Enlightenment- cui bono [who benefits! - is not raised. The debate between Eurosceptics and Europhiles however serves a useful social function. It replaces a critical public debate about the nature of European integration, by a 'discursive' spectacle that serves to hide and conceal the true character of its constitutive process. Friederich Hayek, to his benefit, had not such scruples. In the late 1930s, he

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