The Political and Economic Dynamics of the Eurozone Crisis

This is the first book to provide a full and dispassionate account of the politics and economics of the Eurozone crisis, focusing on the interlinked origins and impacts of the Euro-Zone crisis and the policy responses to it.

The book is distinguished from existing research by its avoidance (and rejection) of the too-often simplistic analysis that has characterized political, media and regrettably some academic coverage, and by its attempt to escape from the tyranny of day-to-day events and short-term developments. Each of the contributors identifies an important question and undertakes a careful empirical, theoretically-informed analysis that produces novel perspectives. Together they seek to balance many of the existing accounts that have rushed to sometimes unwarranted conclusions, concerning, for example, the locus of institutional power in European crisis-management; the power and centrality of particular member states, notably Germany which has been attributed with 'hegemonic' status; the supposed entrapment of EU policy makers by an 'austerity ideology'; and the deep flaws that apparently afflict the solutions to the crisis put painstakingly in place, such as Banking Union.

While it will be some time before the EU can put the crisis behind it, and the dust finally settles on the revised institutional system that emerges, The Political and Economic Dynamics of the Eurozone Crisis marks an important step towards a considered, reflective analysis of the tumultuous events and developments of the crisis period.

James A. Caporaso is a Specialist in international political economy and international relations theory. He is a past president of the International Studies Association (1997-98) and past Chair of the European Union Studies Association (1995-97). In 2003 he received an award for Distinguished International Political Economy Scholar from the International Studies Association. He has published articles in International Studies Quarterly, International Organization, American Political Science Review, Journal of European Public Policy and several other journals. He edited Comparative Political Studies until 2013. He is coauthor with David Levine of Theories of Political Economy. His current research is on political institutions and the financial crisis in comparative perspective.

Martin Rhodes has been a Professor at Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, since 2006. Between September 2012 and July 2015 he was Associate Dean of the Josef Korbel School. Between 1994 and 2006, he was a Research Fellow, Research Professor and then Professor (after 1998) at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. He is a co-founder of the journal South European Politics and Society, and co-edited European Political Science, 2001-2006. He has published articles on European Union and comparative European politics and political economy in West European Politics, The European Journal of Political Research, British Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Common Market Studies, among others.

1. Introduction: The Political and Economic Dynamics of the Eurozone Crisis, James A. Caporaso and Martin Rhodes
2. 'States Choose but not Under Circumstances of Their Own Making': A New Interpretation of the Integration Debate in Light of the European Financial Crisis, James A. Caporaso and Min-hyung Kim
3. The Euro's Twin Challenges: Experience and Lessons, Bergljot Barkbu, Barry Eichengreen, and Ashoka Mody
4. Competitiveness and the European Financial Crisis, Erik Jones
5. 'United We Fall': The Euro Area's Silent Balance of Payment Crisis in Comparison with Previous Ones, Benedicta Marzinotto
6. Searching Under the Lamp-Post: The Evolution of Fiscal Surveillance, Deborah Mabbett and Waltraud Schelkle
7. Fiscal Governance and Fiscal Outcomes under EMU before and after the Crisis, Mark Hallerberg
8. The ECB as a Strategic Actor: Central Banking in a Politically Fragmented Monetary Union, C. Randall Henning
9. International in Life, National in Death? Banking Nationalism on the Road to Banking Union, Rachel A. Epstein and Martin Rhodes
10. Free Sailing or Tied to the Mast? The Political Costs of Monetary Adjustment in Iceland, Latvia and Ireland, Jonathon Moses
11. New Institutional Dynamics in the European Union, Sergio Fabbrini