12. Critical Political Economy

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan W. Cafruny ◽  
J. Magnus Ryner
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Analysis ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Political Economic

This chapter examines European integration from the perspective of critical political economy. It first situates the belated arrival of political economy in integration studies within the context of the division of the social sciences in the late nineteenth century. It then considers the crisis of the Bretton Woods system and how it served to revive the study of political economy through the establishment of a subdiscipline of international political economy. It also explores the key strands of political economic analysis as they were imported into the study of the European Union, focusing on the ‘varieties of capitalism’ perspective, neo-Marxism, and regulation theory. Finally, it discusses from the perspective of critical political economy the causes and consequences of the economic and monetary union as a case where such an approach seems particularly useful, along with Eastern enlargements of 2004 and 2007.

scholarly journals The Currency of Identity: Ireland 1978 to 1992

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Barbara Murphy
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Small States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Exogenous Shock

<p>Following 10 years in operation, the European Monetary Union (EMU) has been shaken by the global financial crisis and some peripheral states have experienced significant economic shock. The pitfalls of currency unions have been well documented in the literature of International Political Economy (IPE), so the situation that these states find themselves in cannot come as a surprise to any member country. Without highly synchronised economies, some states will suffer significantly in the event of an exogenous shock. This begs the question why a country would make an "irrational" choice to join the monetary union to begin with. The predominant IPE theories on how the EMU was formed are explained using rational choice with material interests as the focus for interstate bargaining. By arguing that they really have no choice to begin with, rational choice theory renders small states impotent. Unsatisfied with this reductionist answer, this body of work explores the participation of one of the states currently in trouble by introducing a constructivist theory of economic identity politics. Exploring the historical record of Ireland in the period of 1978 and 1992, this work reveals that Ireland in fact had choices, and the "irrational" choices it made were significantly influenced by Irish identity politics. However Ireland's "irrational" motivation can only be understood by including economic identity politics into the analysis. It will reveal that the supranational institutions of the European Union can serve as economic instruments to further nationalist goals. In the process the institution can become embedded in the nation such a country like Ireland is now a hybrid - highly European monetarily while it still remains distinctively Irish. As small states now make up the majority of the European Union this thesis adds to our understanding of small state participation in its most ambitious institution thus far.</p>

Christian Democracy and Europe

2021 ◽  
pp. 193-211
Author(s):  
Kees van Kersbergen
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Christian Democracy ◽  
Key Driver ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Democratic Parties

Christian democracy is the heir to the Catholic confessional parties that emerged in the late nineteenth century. It is a Western European phenomenon promoting a particular social policy, aimed at the moderation of social conflicts especially between social classes. With a distinctive ideology and by appealing to religion and religious values, Christian democracy became broadly attractive to all sections of the electorate. Christian democracy was also a key driver of international cooperation and integration, and particularly influential in the formation of the European Union. Yet the overall picture of Christian democratic parties in recent decades has been one of decline. Secularization plays an obvious role here. That said, there is still some room for political movements to respond actively and strategically to changes in their environment. The chapter concludes by discussing some future options for these parties.

scholarly journals The Currency of Identity: Ireland 1978 to 1992

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Barbara Murphy
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Small States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Exogenous Shock

<p>Following 10 years in operation, the European Monetary Union (EMU) has been shaken by the global financial crisis and some peripheral states have experienced significant economic shock. The pitfalls of currency unions have been well documented in the literature of International Political Economy (IPE), so the situation that these states find themselves in cannot come as a surprise to any member country. Without highly synchronised economies, some states will suffer significantly in the event of an exogenous shock. This begs the question why a country would make an "irrational" choice to join the monetary union to begin with. The predominant IPE theories on how the EMU was formed are explained using rational choice with material interests as the focus for interstate bargaining. By arguing that they really have no choice to begin with, rational choice theory renders small states impotent. Unsatisfied with this reductionist answer, this body of work explores the participation of one of the states currently in trouble by introducing a constructivist theory of economic identity politics. Exploring the historical record of Ireland in the period of 1978 and 1992, this work reveals that Ireland in fact had choices, and the "irrational" choices it made were significantly influenced by Irish identity politics. However Ireland's "irrational" motivation can only be understood by including economic identity politics into the analysis. It will reveal that the supranational institutions of the European Union can serve as economic instruments to further nationalist goals. In the process the institution can become embedded in the nation such a country like Ireland is now a hybrid - highly European monetarily while it still remains distinctively Irish. As small states now make up the majority of the European Union this thesis adds to our understanding of small state participation in its most ambitious institution thus far.</p>

scholarly journals Public authority and its demons: the Sherbro leopard murders in Sierra Leone

Africa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-248
Author(s):  
Paul Richards
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Public Authority ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Resistance ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Civilizing Mission ◽  
Political Advantage ◽  
Late Nineteenth

AbstractDemonization is a widespread aspect of political discourse. We are familiar with the demonization of Brussels bureaucrats as a tool for pursuing the British exit from the European Union, and we take stories about the compulsory straightening of bananas with a pinch of salt, however frustrating it might be that some disaffected voters choose to accept these canards as true. But somehow, stories about the demonic in Africa have been accorded much greater ontological respect, not only by colonial powers keen to boost their own legitimacy through claims to a civilizing mission, but also by anthropologists anxious to understand their informants’ imaginative concerns, perhaps without fully appreciating the political craft or guile with which these discourses are invested. In seeking to void the charge of delusion, an empathetic reading of demonization risks missing the strategic significance of mythic interventions intended to extract political advantage. This article examines an instance of mythic creativity in the politics of late nineteenth-century interior Sierra Leone as an example of the stagecraft sometimes implicit in African public authority. The case is that of the human leopard, an avatar of commercially compromised chieftaincy. The article asks whether the alleged activities of these leopards were the straight bananas of a certain form of anti-colonial political resistance. In a concluding discussion, some consequences for understanding current forms and practices of local public authority are inferred.

A Crisis of Classical Political Economy in Assam

Tea War ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 81-114
Author(s):  
Andrew B. Liu
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Initial Failure ◽  
Migrant Families ◽  
Assam Tea ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Colonial Government

This chapter discusses the initial failure of British colonial officials to profit from tea in colonial Assam from 1830 to 1860, and presents a reexamination of classical political-economic principles. After colonial schemes to lure “free migrant” families from China failed, the bureaucrat W. N. Lees implored the colonial Government of India to dispense with liberal Smithian ideals and instead embrace the “colonization” schemes of Edward G. Wakefield, drawing upon historicist, paternalistic theories that were popular in the late nineteenth century. This debate introduces classical political economy's concept of “value” as a key category for the rest of the book. The chapter then recounts how, starting in the 1860s, officials legalized penal labor contracts that prevented migrant Indian workers from leaving employers under threat of prosecution. During the last decades of the century, the system shepherded nearly half a million migrant workers into Assam, a boon of cheap and immobilized labor critical to the industry's success. Assam tea thrived, in other words, based upon an economic strategy that stood opposed to the principles of liberalism espoused at its outset.

The Ship and the Battle over Migrant ‘Illegality’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Kushner
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
European Union ◽  
Illegal Immigrant ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Boat People ◽  
Jewish Refugees ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
The Mediterranean

By utilising Judith Butler’s concept of the politics of the performative, this chapter explores how the concept of migrant illegality developed from the late nineteenth century onwards. It shows how the term ‘illegal immigrant’ was coined by the British authorities in Palestine from 1933 onwards, used to limit the number of Jewish refugees coming to this Mandated territory and how this continued during and after the war. The chapter also utilised Michel Foucault’s work on the sea being a ‘different space’ with the concept of the ship. It shows how the Mediterranean became a battleground between Jewish refugees and the British authorities, most infamously with the case of Exodus 1947. The chapter closes with more recent ‘boat people’ in the same ocean since the 1990s focusing on the Italian island of Lampedusa which has become a borderless border to the European Union in processing refugees from Africa and Asia.

4. Critical Perspectives

2020 ◽  
pp. 66-86
Author(s):  
Simon Bulmer ◽  
Owen Parker ◽  
Ian Bache ◽  
Stephen George ◽  
Charlotte Burns
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Policy Actors ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Perspectives

This chapter examines the range of critical perspectives now applied to the European Union, including social constructivism, critical political economy, critical social theory, critical feminism, and post-structuralism. These critical—often termed ‘post-positivist’—approaches emphasize the constructed and changeable nature of the social and political world. Many such approaches reject the notion that social reality can be objectively observed and argue that various agents, including policy actors and scholars themselves, are involved in its construction. They highlight the less obvious manifestations of power that pervade the interrelated worlds of political action and political theorizing. It is important to consider why these more critical perspectives have been absent for so long within mainstream studies of the EU.

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