The Politics of Economic and Monetary Union

If the plans concerning EMU will be realised, by 2002 national currencies will be replaced by the Euro and national central banks will be partially replaced by the European Central Bank. The Politics of Economic and Monetary Union starts with the argument that EMU is more a political than an economic project. It develops this theme by addressing five different questions.
First, precisely what is the general role of EMU in the globalising political economy? Second, how EMU will change the power relations and the relationship between political' and economic'? Third, what effects will EMU have on generally accepted values - including for example efficiency, self-determination, and democracy? Fourth, how does the EMU-related politics of symbols - including money - take part in constructing political identities? And last, but certainly not least, what effects EMU will have on the social and political dimension of the Union and thus also on its legitimacy?
The politics of EMU includes many dimensions. The book tries to explain the hegemony of the neoliberal and German vision of Europe in the context of recent development in the global political economy. It assesses the consequences of this hegemony and the possibility for alternatives from a variety of perspectives. In many chapters, it is also argued that the legitimation problems of the Union may turn into an acute crisis also because of EMU. We should expect an actualised crisis to lead to a transformation of the Union.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: The Politics of Economic and Monetary Union.- 2. The Political Aspects of Economic and Monetary Union: A View from Brussels.- 3. The Independence of the European Central Bank: Implications for Democratic Governance.- 4. The Role of Ideas in Dutch, Danish and Swedish Economic Policy in the 1980s and the Beginning of the 1990s.- 5. Identity Politics in the European Union: The Case of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).- 6. Economic and Monetary Union and the Crisis of European Social Contracts.- 7. EMU and the Legitimation Problems of the European Union.- 8. An Emu or an Ostrich? EMU and Neo-Liberal Economic Integration; Limits and Alternatives.- 9. Conclusions: Dialectics of the Multi-faced EMU.- 8. Index.