The Politics of Europe: Monetary Union and Class

209 Pages·2001·46.586 MB·English

by  Werner Bonefeld (eds.)

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
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The politics of Europe : monetary union and class I edited by
Werner Bonefeld.
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ISBN 978-0-333-92010-4
1. Monetary unions-Europe. 2. Social dass-furope.
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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