The Political Economy Of The Eurozone S Rollercoaster

Global crises throughout history have shaken humanity and transformed economies and societies. The Eurozone faced two such crises soon after its foundation. This book brings new insights regarding the Eurozone’s response to the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 and the Covid-19 pandemic and its effectiveness in dealing with the macroeconomic imbalances in Europe. Is the Eurozone more resilient now? This book is an indispensable addition to the literature on the recent global crises and the Eurozone for both academics and policymakers who are eager to delve deeper into these vital questions.

This book proposes a new way of thinking about the Eurozone, exploring the overlap between its economic and political interdependencies.

"At the end of the Second World War in 1945, which brought on a new Italian State, Italy's Foreign policy was first and foremost that of re-joining the new order of western alliances and playing a role in the re-building of a new Europe different from that which had brought war and conflict. The book "Italy and the European Union: A Rollercoaster Journey" seeks to bring to English language readers the manner in which Italy directed, approached and implemented its vision toward the new Europe. New visions and proposals emerged through champions such as Altiero Spinelli, Alcide De Gasperi, Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet. It was meant to be a new European journey, which would seek to put war and conflict behind it. Being an original member of the Coal and Steel Authority established in the early 1950s, Italy sought to become a player in the direction of European integration. However, it did so with significant distractions and hurdles-at times as a bystander and at other times as a prominent player. The presence of Franco-German leadership was in the first instance a vision but for Italy at times contentious. Equally, Italy was afflicted by its internal distractions and priorities, which were at times a threat to its stability and to its political institutions. At times Italy made significant contributions to the direction of the European journey much of which under the constant eye of ideological tensions in country. It was the country with the largest Communist Party in Western Europe within a bi-polar Cold War arrangement, which remained a constant source of suspicion and concern. From being a Europhile member state in the 1990s to one where Euroscepticism appears regularly, Italy remains ambivalent about its relationship with the European Union depending on the political party in government. This book seeks to provide the story on how and why these changing perceptions of the European Union occurred and what possible avenues awaits this country on its rollercoaster journey with the European Union"--

From one of Britain's most distinguished historians and the bestselling author of Hitler, this is the definitive history of a divided Europe, from the aftermath of the Second World War to the present. After the overwhelming horrors of the first half of the 20th century, described by Ian Kershaw in his previous book as having gone 'to Hell and back', the years from 1950 to 2017 brought peace and relative prosperity to most of Europe. Enormous economic improvements transformed the continent. The catastrophic era of the world wars receded into an ever more distant past, though its long shadow continued to shape mentalities. Europe was now a divided continent, living under the nuclear threat in a period intermittently fraught with anxiety. Europeans experienced a 'roller-coaster ride', both in the sense that they were flung through a series of events which threatened disaster, but also in that they were no longer in charge of their own destinies: for much of the period the USA and USSR effectively reduced Europeans to helpless figures whose fates were dictated to them by the Cold War. There were striking successes - the Soviet bloc melted away, dictatorships vanished and Germany was successfully reunited. But accelerating globalization brought new fragilities. The impact of interlocking crises after 2008 was the clearest warning to Europeans that there was no guarantee of peace and stability. In this remarkable book, Ian Kershaw has created a grand panorama of the world we live in and where it came from. Drawing on examples from all across the continent, Roller-Coaster will make us all rethink Europe and what it means to be European.

The book uses an innovative theoretical framework to explain how the EU social dimension has taken its present form. It presents and applies a political economic framework to the European labour market integration process and offers new tools for analysing the dynamics of regional integration. The theory is applied to case studies of the EU's approach to social protection, health and safety protection at the workplace, and maternity leave. The topical issues around the future of welfare provision in Europe, how a 'Social Europe' may develop and the political and economic consequences of this are discussed.

Creating the European monetary union between diverse and unequal nation states is arguably one of the biggest social experiments in history. This book offers an explanation of how the euro experiment came about and was sustained despite a severe crisis, and provides a comparison with the monetary-financial history of the US. The euro experiment can be understood as risk-sharing through a currency that is issued by a supranational central bank. A single currency shares liquidity risks by creating larger markets for all financial assets. A single monetary policy responds to business cycles in the currency area as a whole rather than managing the path of one dominant economy. Mechanisms of risk-sharing become institutions of monetary solidarity if they are consciously maintained, but they will periodically face opposition in member states. This book argues that diversity of membership is not an economic obstacle to the success of the euro, as diversity increases the potential gains from risk sharing. But political cooperation is needed to realize this potential, and such cooperation is up against collective action problems which become more intractable as the parties become more diverse. Hence, risk-sharing usually comes about as a collective by-product of national incentives. This political-economic tension can explain why the gains from risk-sharing are not more fully exploited, both in the euro area and in the US dollar area. This approach to monetary integration is based on the theory of collective action when hierarchy is not available as a solution to inter-state cooperation. The theory originates with Keohane and Ostrom (1995) and it is applied in this book, taking into account the latest research on the inherent instability of financial market integration.

The European Union - a supranational system with its own institutional characteristics and autonomy - has a structure and functional logic which are more similar to those of the US than those of European nation states. Yet, by and large, the EU and the US tend to be analyzed more as potential geopolitical and economic rivals or allies than compared as institutional peers. By bringing together some of the most influential political scientists and historians to compare the European and American experiences of federalism, Democracy and Federalism in the European Union and the United States explores the future development, and seeks a better understanding, of a post-national European Union democracy. This book consists of three core parts: how the EU has developed and the implications of the process of European federalization the features of American federalism, tracing the intellectual debate that led to the approval of the American federal constitution in 1787 the future of European Union. This is essential reading for all students of European politics, democracy and international relations.