Europe entrapped / Claus Offe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Offe, Claus.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Financial crises--Europe--History--21st century.

Financial crises.

Fiscal policy--Europe--History--21st century.

Fiscal policy.

History.

Europe--Politics and government--21st century.

Europe.

Politics and government.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

viii, 136 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; Malden, MA : Polity, 2015.

Summary:

"Today Europe finds itself in a crisis that casts a dark shadow over an entire generation. The seriousness of the crisis stems from one core political contradiction at the heart of the European project: namely, that what urgently needs to be done is also extremely unpopular and therefore virtually impossible to do democratically. What must be done - and almost everyone agrees in principle on the measures that would be needed to deal with the financial crisis - cannot be sold to the voting public of the core member states, which so far have been less affected by the crisis than those on the periphery, nor can the conditions that core members try to impose be easily sold to voters in the deficit countries. The European Union is therefore becoming increasingly disunited, with deepening divides between the German-dominated 'core' and the southern 'periphery', between the winners and the losers of the common currency, between the advocates of greater integration and the anti-Europeans, between the technocrats and the populists. Europe finds itself trapped by the deepening divisions that are opening up across the Continent, obstructing its ability to deal with a crisis that has already caused massive social suffering in the countries of the European periphery and is threatening to derail the very project of the European Union. In this short book, Claus Offe brings into sharp focus the central political problem that lies at the heart of the EU and shackles its ability to deal with the most serious crisis of its short history"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1. Democratic capitalism and the European Union

2. The nature of the crisis

3. Growth, debt, and doom loops

4. No return to square one

5. In search of political agency

6. Finalitées : bases of identification with European integration as a political project

7. The configuration of political forces and preferences

8. Germany's leadership role for Europe : a non-starter

9. "Thin" citizenship : the ugly face of the EU system of rule

10. Redistribution across state borders and social divides.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 131-136).

ISBN:

9780745687513

0745687512

OCLC:

880239112

Publisher Number:

40024588492

Online:

Cover image