Europe Entrapped

Today Europe finds itself in a crisis that casts a dark shadow
over an entire generation. The seriousness of the crisis stems from
one core political contradiction at the heart of the European
project: namely, that what urgently needs to be done is also
extremely unpopular and therefore virtually impossible to do
democratically. What must be done - and almost everyone agrees in
principle on the measures that would be needed to deal with the
financial crisis - cannot be sold to the voting public of the core
member states, which so far have been less affected by the crisis
than those on the periphery, nor can the conditions that core
members try to impose be easily sold to voters in the deficit
countries.

The European Union is therefore becoming increasingly disunited,
with deepening divides between the German-dominated
'core' and the southern 'periphery',
between the winners and the losers of the common currency, between
the advocates of greater integration and the anti-Europeans,
between the technocrats and the populists. Europe finds itself
trapped by the deepening divisions that are opening up across the
Continent, obstructing its ability to deal with a crisis that has
already caused massive social suffering in the countries of the
European periphery and is threatening to derail the very project of
the European Union.

In this short book, Claus Offe brings into sharp focus the
central political problem that lies at the heart of the EU and
shackles its ability to deal with the most serious crisis of its
short history.

Autorentext
Claus Offe is Professor of Political Sociology at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. He is author of numerous books, including Contradictions of the Welfare State, Disorganized Capitalism, Modernity and the State, and Reflections on America: Tocqueville, Weber and Adorno in the United States.

Zusammenfassung

Today Europe finds itself in a crisis that casts a dark shadow over an entire generation. The seriousness of the crisis stems from one core political contradiction at the heart of the European project: namely, that what urgently needs to be done is also extremely unpopular and therefore virtually impossible to do democratically. What must be done - and almost everyone agrees in principle on the measures that would be needed to deal with the financial crisis - cannot be sold to the voting public of the core member states, which so far have been less affected by the crisis than those on the periphery, nor can the conditions that core members try to impose be easily sold to voters in the deficit countries.

The European Union is therefore becoming increasingly disunited, with deepening divides between the German-dominated 'core' and the southern 'periphery', between the winners and the losers of the common currency, between the advocates of greater integration and the anti-Europeans, between the technocrats and the populists. Europe finds itself trapped by the deepening divisions that are opening up across the Continent, obstructing its ability to deal with a crisis that has already caused massive social suffering in the countries of the European periphery and is threatening to derail the very project of the European Union.

In this short book, Claus Offe brings into sharp focus the central political problem that lies at the heart of the EU and shackles its ability to deal with the most serious crisis of its short history.

Inhalt

• List of Abbreviations

• Preface

• (1) Democratic capitalism and the European Union

• (2) The nature of the crisis

• (3) Growth, debt and doom loops

• (4) No return to square one

• (5) In search of political agency

• (6) Finalitées: Bases of identification with European integration as a political project

• (7) The configuration of political forces and preferences

• (8) Germany's leadership role for Europe: a non-starter - Framing the crisis

• (9) "Thin" citizenship: The ugly face of the EU system of rule

• (10) Redistribution across state borders and social divides

• Afterword