Das fatale Einheitsdenken in der EU. Lehren aus Selbsttäuschungen und Fehlschlägen / The fatal approach to european unification: Lessons from selfdeceptions and failures

Schüller Alfred

ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 2011, vol. 62, issue 1, 491-516

Abstract: Initially, two competing schools of thought on economic integration and unification policy are introduced: The variant proposed by German liberals such as Hayek, Eucken and Röpke and that developed by Saint-Simon and his supporters. Exploring the development of the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Common Agricultural Policy, the Maastricht Treaty and European Monetary Union, it becomes evident that the development of the European Union is characterised by the rejection of the liberal thought on economic integration and unification policy. Moreover, the research identifies that the dominant French ideas on how to achieve economic integration and unification suffer from basic economic and political misconceptions and self-deceptions with fatal consequences for the policies developed. The proposals to salvage the Euro only serve to highlight the inadequacies and delusions of the French approach. Considering the development of the European Monetary Union the author explores the reasons why the chance to utilize the Euro to apply and popularise liberal ideas about economic integration and unification has been missed. Consequently the Euro has developed not into the glue or cornerstone, which promotes and consolidates European integration, but into a potential blasting agent. It does not seem feasible that the key mistakes made at the inception of the European Monetary Union, to fail to align decentral economic and fiscal policies with central monetary policy, can be remedied by enforcing fiscal solidarity between member states. Such proposals, which are based on Saint-Simon’s school of thought, are geared towards an increasing politicisation of the European Central Bank and a debtor-friendly socialisation of fiscal policy. This is more likely to promote the demise rather than to safeguard European economic integration. The article concludes by considering the benefits and challenges of a philosophical and political reorientation towards the liberal thought on economic integration and unification.

Date: 2011
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DOI: 10.1515/ordo-2011-0122

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