 European Monetary Union: A Neo-liberal Trojan Horse?Bill Lucarelli Contributions to Political Economy, 2004, vol. 23, issue 1, 81-91 Abstract: It will be argued that the neo-liberal policies of disinflation, which have governed the evolution of European monetary union, have contributed to the onset of 'Eurosclerosis' over the past two decades. These monetarist-inspired policies have set in motion the cumulative and self-reinforcing logic of competitive disinflation and have left a legacy of high unemployment and economic stagnation. The basic contention is that Germany constitutes the core, hegemonic state and that its trade and investment relations with its EMU partners are essentially asymmetrical. Consequently, the process of competitive disinflation between member states in order to qualify for the Euro-zone has been driven by the ideological preferences of the Bundesbank and the imperatives of German oligopolistic accumulation. Furthermore, the anti-Keynesian bias of the Maastricht Treaty and the Stability Pact has merely reinforced this process of severe disinflation and austerity, the social costs of which are ultimately borne by the European working class. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press. Date: 2004 There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:copoec:v:23:y:2004:i:1:p:81-91 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Contributions to Political Economy is currently edited by Jacqui Lagrue More articles in Contributions to Political Economy from Cambridge Political Economy Society Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.