Causes and Consequences of the Recent European Crisis: Can Polanyi help us understand problems of the Eurozone?

Year 2014, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 37 - 49, 29.08.2014

Mine Kara

https://doi.org/10.20991/allazimuth.167326

Abstract

Causes and Consequences of the Recent European Crisis: Can Polanyi help us understand problems of the Eurozone?

Abstract

By evoking economic turmoil in Europe, the global crisis of 2007-2008 had important impacts on the economic and political integration of the European Union (EU), leading to a reassessment of the relationship between the core– periphery countries and the model of the ‘democratic European welfare state.’ Most studies that address this problem in the EU focus on the fiscal mismanagement and welfare policies of the non-core or periphery countries (i.e. Greece) as the main culprit. Unlike the mainstream ideas, this paper explains the recent European crisis as a result of the liberalization and deregulation process that started with the second globalization wave in the 1970s. This paper also questions whether the recent radical nationalist trend in the EU countries can be explained as a byproduct of the crisis, using Polanyi’s notion of “double movement”.

Keywords

European crisis, Eurozone, Polanyi, double movement, swings of the pendulum

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• Table 1- Current Account Balance in Selected Eurozone Countries France ,8 ,2 ,7 ,5 0,5 0,6 1 1,7 1,5 1,7 Germany ,9 ,7 ,1 ,3 ,5 ,3 ,6 ,7 Netherlands ,6 ,6 ,5 ,6 ,4 ,3 ,7 ,3 ,2 ,6 Finland ,4 ,5 ,8 ,2 ,4 ,2 ,3 ,6 ,8 ,4 Greece 7,2 6,5 6,5 5,8 7,6 11,4 14,6 14,9 11,1 10,1 Italy ,3 0,4 0,8 0,3 0,9 1,5 1,3 2,9 2 3,5 Portugal 10,3 8,2 6,4 8,3 10,3 10,7 10,1 12,6 10,9 10 Spain 3,9 3,3 3,5 5,2 7,4 9 10 9,6 5,2 4,6 Source: Eurostat yearbook 2012
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• Source: Caldentey and Vernengo, “The Euro Imbalances.”