The left and right hands of the Portuguese state: Welfare retrenchment of public employment

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 237-257
Author(s):  
Rosário Mauritti ◽  
Nuno Nunes ◽  
Maria do Carmo Botelho ◽  
Daniela Craveiro
Keyword(s):  
European Central Bank ◽  
Multidimensional Analysis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Public Employment ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
European Central ◽  
Public Sector Employment ◽  
State Public Policy ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

This article focuses on welfare retrenchment in Portugal by analysing the evolution of public sector employment up until 2013. A multidimensional analysis of the structure of public employment in the Portuguese state was developed, theoretically guided by the ‘hands of the state’ model proposed by Bourdieu, which divides the main functions of contemporary states between its left hand (more redistributive) and its right hand (more rational economic-oriented). Bourdieu’s approach is especially useful in addressing the transformations of the Portuguese public employment between 1979 and 2013, characterized by specific economic, social and political changes. In 2013 – a year in which the adjustment measures agreed by the Portuguese government, the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund during the global crisis were especially intense – we observed the tendency towards the disqualification of public employment and the shrinking of the left hand of the Portuguese state. Public policy orientations in the areas of education and science were particularly troubling, considering the structural backwardness the country faces in these fields in the context of the European Union.

Pluralist Accountability in Times of Economic Crisis

2020 ◽  
pp. 151-180
Author(s):  
Gisela Hirschmann
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
European Commission ◽  
European Central Bank ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Public ◽  
European Central ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

This chapter analyzes the conditions for pluralist accountability in response to human rights violations that were attributed to the European Union (EU) Troika’s austerity policies that were implemented in Greece and Portugal between 2010 and 2015 in response to the global financial crisis. I demonstrate how competition between national and EU institutions, and between different EU institutions, led the Portuguese Constitutional Court and the European Parliament to develop distinguished profiles as accountability holders. Major differences existed as to the degree of vulnerability of the different Troika institutions to human rights demands: while the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank rendered themselves immune against human rights demands, the European Commission was more vulnerable due to its broader mandate and the declining trust of the public in EU institutions’ capacity to address the crisis. This explains why a pluralist accountability framework was most active with regard to the European Commission.

scholarly journals Denationalization: Neoliberalism after Foucault

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-185
Author(s):  
Marcello Barison
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Central Bank ◽  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
European Central Bank ◽  
Economic Knowledge ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Central ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

Starting from Michel Foucault?s considerations dedicated to economic knowledge (especially in Il faut d?fendre la soci?t? and Naissance de la biopolitique), this paper is about setting up a possible theoretical framework in which to situate the relationship between political power and neoliberalism as they appear in their modern articulation, analyzing in depth how international governmental organizations - such as, for example, the European Central Bank, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund - are involved in this process.

Dramatis Institutiones

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Randall Henning
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Central Bank ◽  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Euro Area ◽  
European Central Bank ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Central ◽  
Regime Complex ◽  
Basic Facts ◽  
Institutional Conflict

The regime complex for crisis finance in the euro area included the European Council, Council of the European Union, and Eurogroup in addition to the three institutions of the troika. As the member states acted largely, though not exclusively, through the council system, these bodies stood at the center of the institutional mix. This chapter reviews the institutions as a prelude to examining the dilemmas that confronted them over the course of the crises. It presents a brief review of some of the basic facts about their origins, membership, and organization. Each section then delves more deeply into these institutions’ governance and principles to understand their capabilities and strategic challenges. As a consequence of different mandates and design, the European Commission, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund diverged with respect to their approach to financing, adjustment, conditionality, and debt sustainability. This divergence set the stage for institutional conflict in the country programs.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Randall Henning
Keyword(s):  
Euro Area ◽  
European Central Bank ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Euro Crisis ◽  
European Monetary ◽  
Member States ◽  
European Central ◽  
Regime Complex ◽  
The International Monetary Fund ◽  
European Monetary Fund

European governments, against their initial instincts, invited the International Monetary Fund to design financial rescue programs during the euro crisis in cooperation with the European Commission and European Central Bank. These institutions, known as the “troika,” constitute a regime complex in the parlance of international political economy. This book poses four questions about the regime complex for crisis finance in the euro area: Why did European governments choose this particular mix of institutions? What was the strategy of key member states in directing several institutions to collaborate on lending programs? Why did this arrangement endure despite severe conflicts among the institutions? Should the member states of the euro area “go it alone” by creating a European Monetary Fund? This chapter elaborates on these questions and provides an overview of the book.

scholarly journals International legal and national regulation of digital currency: the experience of China and the EU

2021 ◽  
pp. 82-86
Author(s):  
M. R. Saliya
Keyword(s):  
International Organizations ◽  
European Central Bank ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Central Banks ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Bank Of China ◽  
National Regulation ◽  
European Central ◽  
Digital Currency ◽  
The Eu

The article discusses the issue of legal regulation of the digital currency of central banks. The experience of international organizations, as well as the fi rst steps in this direction from China, represented by the People’s Bank of China and the European Union, represented by the European Central Bank, are examined.

scholarly journals The Binding Force of Babel: The Enforcement of EC Law Unpublished in the Languages of the New Member States

2007 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 43-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Bobek
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Central Bank ◽  
European Central Bank ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Community Law ◽  
New Member States ◽  
European Central ◽  
Binding Force ◽  
Ec Law

On 1 may 2004, 10 new Member States joined the European Union. This meant inter alia that, save for the express derogations provided for in the Act of Accession, the entire mass of Community secondary legislation became binding in the new Member States. This principle of the immediate effects of Community law in the new Member States was provided for in Article 2 AA: From the date of Accession, the provisions of the original Treaties and the acts adopted by the institutions and the European Central Bank before Accession shall be binding on the new Member States and shall apply in those States under the conditions laid down in those Treaties and in this Act.

Open Government

2021 ◽  
pp. 667-682
Author(s):  
Gary Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
European Central Bank ◽  
Open Government ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
The Public ◽  
European Central ◽  
Public Policy Decisions ◽  
The International Monetary Fund ◽  
Opening Up

Since Irish independence in 1922, governance structures have been excessively secretive. Political and civil service elites operated on a presumption of secrecy and a principle that the public did not need to know about decisions being taken in their name. In the last two decades, a number of policy innovations have gone some way towards providing for a more open polity. These include Ombudsman, regulation of lobbying, and freedom of information legislation, enacted over concerns about payments to politicians and a series of catastrophic public policy decisions that led to the bailout of the Irish economy by the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission, and the European Central Bank. This chapter assesses the importance of the principle of open government in modern Irish politics. It examines the nature of secrecy, assesses the tentative opening up of government since the 1980s, and analyses the open government proposals introduced since 2011.

The European Central Bank

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Zilioli ◽  
Phoebus Athanassiou
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Central Bank ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
European Central Bank ◽  
Central Banks ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Central ◽  
European System ◽  
The Eu

The provisions on Monetary Union (MU), of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union (TFEU or the Treaty), as well as the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank (the Statute), are important in their own right, and are amongst those from which any student of the European Union (EU) can learn a great deal with regard to the EU.

Financial Assistance to Non-Euro Area Member States

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Thiele
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Public Debt ◽  
European Central Bank ◽  
Financial Assistance ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Money Markets ◽  
Complete Breakdown ◽  
The International Monetary Fund ◽  
Bail Out

The historic financial crisis that began on the American housing market in 2007 and from there spread all over the globe had tremendous consequences for more or less every country worldwide, especially for their respective public finances. The overall public debt level skyrocketed due to the substantial economic downfall and the necessity to bail out hundreds of financial institutions that had suffered severe losses when the American subprime market collapsed and the money markets froze. Though the States were (with tremendous help by the European Central Bank) finally successful in preventing a complete breakdown of the major financial markets, their intervention left the national budgets and the balance of payments (BOP) of several of them in a devastating condition with insolvencies only being averted by massive external and mainly financial assistance by other States and institutions (especially the International Monetary Fund (IMF)). Some of these states facing such a financial calamity were Member States of the European Union (EU)—a fact having an important normative implication: Other Member States wanting to help financially were bound by the normative framework of the European Union Treaties. And the same was obviously true for the European Union itself where it wanted to initiate any form of (financial) assistance.

2. The Union institutions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel Foster
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Central Bank ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
European Central ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
European Court ◽  
Council Of Ministers ◽  
Committee Of The Regions

This chapter focuses on the institutions responsible for executing the different tasks of the European Union (EU). The main seven institutions are complemented by two advisory bodies, the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), which are responsible for gathering inputs for use in decision-making. The initial institutions of the Commission, Council, European Parliament, and Court of Justice were expanded to five to include the European Council, Court of Auditors, and the European Central Bank in 2009 with the entry into force of the Maastricht and the Lisbon Treaties. This chapter also describes the roles and responsibilities of the institutions, including the Council of Ministers of the European Union, the European Parliament, and the European Court of Justice (CoJ).

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