Political conflict in the reform of the Eurozone

Thomas Lehner and Fabio Wasserfallen

European Union Politics, 2019, vol. 20, issue 1, 45-64

Abstract: The negotiations on the reforms of the Economic and Monetary Union were highly conflictual. This article analyses the dimensions of conflict that structured these negotiations. Using several dimension-reduction methods, we conduct an in-depth analysis of the ‘EMU Positions’ dataset, which codes the positions of all EU member states over a broad range of fiscal, financial, economic, and institutional integration proposals. The empirical findings show that the political contestation in the reform of the Eurozone is one-dimensional between advocates of fiscal transfer and discipline. On this one-dimensional scale, we identify three broader coalitions, while Germany and France lead the two opposing groups. This conflict structure provides a setting conducive to the constant (re-)negotiation of compromises. We conclude the analysis with a discussion of several implications.

Keywords: Economic and Monetary Union; European integration; Eurozone; political conflict (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:20:y:2019:i:1:p:45-64

DOI: 10.1177/1465116518814338

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