EMU as Europeanization: Convergence, Diversity and Contingency

Kenneth Dyson

Journal of Common Market Studies, 2000, vol. 38, issue 4, 645-666

Abstract: This article examines the effects of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) as a case study of Europeanization of EU Member States. Emphasis is placed on what these effects are, how they take place, and who is affected. The stress is on the diversity of these effects within a framework of powerful systemic pressures for convergence and on the different strategies and constructions placed on EMU by domestic elites. The extent of policy convergence is seen as contingent on the dynamic interactions between ‘top‐down’ and ‘bottom‐up’ aspects of EMU. How EMU affects states is pictured as a combination of ‘thick’ effects (captured by constructivism) and ‘thin’ effects (highlighted by rationalist approaches). The thick effects are confined to a small transnational policy community. But EMU has strengthened the domestic power of actors involved with this community. The article considers the implications for problems of conflict between elite and public discourse about Europe; for a differential Europe; and for the form of relationship amongst European states (semi‐sovereignty and competition for cognitive leadership). A key shift is from adapting to a German monetary hegemony under the ERM to a more open competition for cognitive leadership, offering to small states new scope for influence.

Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5965.00258

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:38:y:2000:i:4:p:645-666

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0021-9886

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Common Market Studies is currently edited by Jim Rollo and Daniel Wincott

More articles in Journal of Common Market Studies from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().