Jan Toporowski: Fascist Spectre Looms over Stagnant Europe

A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of fascism, born of economic Stagnation and the very apparent ability of democratic governments to eliminate mass employment.

There are two main reasons for the alarming prospect: First, Exchange rate stability has come to be regarded as a precondition for European economic and monetarian union. More

Jan Toporowski: Eastern Europe: Post-Communist Assets in Crisis

During the 1980s, in the final years of communism, Eastern European economists and politicians were easily persuaded by the myth that removal of the petty restrictions on private business would allow private enterprise to flourish. The idea of a permanent state of capitalist dynamism is rooted in the notion that finance spontaneously backs industrial enterprise.                                                                                                         Many economists assume, at least in their abstract theories More

 

Laura Horn, Angela Wigger: Uneven Development and Political Resistance against EU Austerity Politics

In response to the current crisis, European Union (EU) institutions and Eurozone governments have adopted a range of regulatory and treaty-based measures to ensure fiscal discipline through limiting the capacity of Eurozone governments running budget deficits and accumulating sovereign debt. In addition, almost all Eurozone governments have taken measures to deregulate labour laws, such as easing employee dismissals, reducing minimum wages, More

Johannes Jäger: The European Periphery and Latin American Experiences and Perspectives. Some Remarks on Peripherialization in Europe

In general, peripheral countries have been affected much more strongly by the crisis than those considered central. This has increased the visibility of asymmetries and dependency within Europe, and hence processes of peripherialization. Experiences of the Latin American periphery and theoretical approaches produced in that context therefore provide a useful framework of analysis for the analysis of European peripheries. In addition, in order to deal with the different types of peripheral development and asymmetries within Europe, the regulation approach represents a complementary theoretical framework. Weiterlesen

Organisers: Again on the German Dominance

For the first EU experts’s discussion in 2011 Frieder Otto Wolf had elaborated a text on the „Gemeinschaftsmethode“ (Community method) and on the „Unionsmethode“ (Union method). His English text helps to understand the problems and the context as the societal consequences of the ESM treaty and of the Fiscal compact. It helps also to understand what the document „A Fundamental Law“ of the Spinelli group and the Bertelsmann foundation means and should. Please find Frieder Otto Wolfs paper here.

Andrea Lagna: American Power in the Age of Financialisation: An Appreciation of Peter Gowan’s Contribution to the Field of International Political Economy

According to a recent report published by the European Commission (2013:14), the global financial crisis has only temporarily stopped the economic growth of the United States (US). In fact, the average per-capita income in this country will return to pre-crisis levels during the period 2014-2023. These figures contrast strikingly with the dim forecast concerning European economies. More

Workshop Organizers: About Structural Similarities in the Development of former European Colonies, CEE Countries and “Euro-Crisis-Countries”

In our previous “ papers from the organizers” we have highlighted the term and the issue of “regions”, and have explained some additional terms and their connections. Furthermore, we have promised to discuss the structural similarities referred to in the title. The following discussion paper is another draft for further debate – it continues the previous paper sand remains a rough sketch for the time being. More

Peter Gowan: The NATO Powers and the Balkan Tradegy

Western powers usually legitimize military interventions in terms of a proclaimed commitment to some universalist norm or to some goal embodying such a norm. These declared goals can oscillate, but they are important because a central element of their foreign policy, particularly when it involves starting a war, is maintaining the support of their domestic population. More

Lutz Brangsch: The “Hard Core” of European Integration

Dimitris Sotiropoulos notes quite rightly that the Euro is not just a currency, but a mechanism: “It has set up a particular form of symbiosis among different capitalist economies” (Sotiropoulos 2012, 66). But what is the material nature of this “symbiosis among different capitalist economies”?

This key issue had already been raised by John Grahl in 2003. He stressed that globalisation and the associated process of European integration More