Europe's new fiscal governance in context: a state-theoretical perspective

Magnus Ryner

Chapter 3 in Critical Political Economy of the European Polycrisis, 2025, pp 32-45 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter deploys neo-Marxist state-theoretical concepts to analyse the emergence of the European Union's (EU) new fiscal governance framework. By doing so, the chapter serves as an illustration of how these concepts are relevant for a critical analysis of the EU and how they might be deployed more generally. The chapter illustrates how the new fiscal governance seeks to address capital accumulation problems in the context of a competitive austerity regime that gives priority to export orientation in the context of US-dominated financialization, based on depoliticized legitimation appeals to ‘expertise’. It is argued that this accumulation strategy is riddled with contradictions that generate crisis tendencies in accumulation (stagnation and uneven development) as well as in governability and legitimation, as fiscal governance by its very design becomes re-politicized. Herein reside some of the deeper and more long-standing sources of Europe's polycrisis.

Keywords: Competitive austerity; European Union; Financialization; New fiscal governance framework; Re-politicization; State theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035347933
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