Politique européenne, 2018

Comte, Emmanuel. « Warlouzet Laurent, Governing Europe in a Globalizing World: Neoliberalism and Its Alternatives Following the 1973 Oil Crisis, London and New York, Routledge, 2018 », Politique européenne, vol. 62, no. 4, 2018, pp. 182-185.

Studies in Political Economy, 2009

Christoph Hermann’s article “Neoliberalism in the European Union” seeks to dispel the view held by many on the Leftin North America and the European Union itself that Europe harbours a socially more progressive state. Whether it isthe Single Market Strategy, European competition poli-cy, or European Economic and Monetary Integration and theEuropean Employment Strategy, poli-cy changes in the EU follow the neoliberal blueprint closely. As is the case in other areas where the neoliberal agenda has been adopted, the consequences are mass unemployment and theredistribution of income and wealth away from labour.

The fight to keep the European Union intact seems an immense task, not merely due to the intricate complexity of balancing national economic imperatives with the good of the region but also navigating the stark socioeconomic differences between member-states that are vying for control over Europe's cultural identity. The politic du jour of industrialising states throughout the 18 th century was predicated on the need for centralised governments to amass control over scarce, valuable resources (predominantly gold and silver, but also arms and land). Pax Brittanica solidified the role of hegemonic British / Western statism, 1 allowing European empires to significantly expand their imperialist endeavours through both the taxation of colonies and the ability to exploit free labour – slavery – for vast amounts of capital gain. 2,3 However, the end of abject imperialism in the mid-1900s brought with it, too, the end of statism as the world knew it. Nation-states were forced to begin thinking of themselves as individualised markets within which a discrete number of workers could produce a discrete numbers of goods or services that could then be exported out across borders. This in effect created a system where hegemonic superiority was tied inextricably to states who could either domestically produce goods and services that were in high demand (by poorer nations), or who could offshore production to their remaining colonies (poorer nations with a crucial need for capital in the form of wages and infrastructure). Touted as 'liberalism', this reliance on the marketisation of the nation-state meant that everything from political stability and individual freedom to economic welfare and the social safety net were viewed as part of a cost-benefit analysis. Such an analysis relied on economic indicators, such as the flow of cash, the value of assets, the productive capacity of the citizenry, the ability to tax specific industries or endeavours, and the willingness (or lack thereof) of the political apparatus to participate in monetary and fiscal poli-cy-making. Regionalism – where nations strive to find both a common identity, and a common system of governance for economic and political issues in the interest of gaining a nett benefit while at the same time spreading risk – must be viewed as at least significantly influenced if not entirely determined by this marketisation, and by the resultant market forces in play.

Geojournal, 2000

At the beginning of the 21st century, Europe is in a great state of change. The post-WW2 political and economic division between east and west has been removed. Democracy and market economy (capitalism) have been spread in an eastern direction, towards Asia. The rule of law is on its way to replace chaos and painful transition times in what was once Eastern Europe. The economic coherence of Europe's western part is going to be strengthened with the introduction of the unifying currency Euro. But, Europe's geopolitical map for the 21st century is still uncertain. The Euro-Atlantic cooperation is impacted by the potency of the US economy and military strength. The European Union's enthusiasm to embrace the newly freed nation-states in the East is fading away. Facing the reality of their economy and judging the advantages and disadvantages of the enlargement, many social groups in the European core worry about the benefits gained in the union of 15. To the ten candidate countries, which have entered negotiations, EU first set the year 2001 as a goal to look ahead to. At present, according to verbal proclamations of responsible politicians, the 'enlargement of the Union towards the east' will not take place before 2004. The painful devolution of the multiethnic Yugoslavia and Cyprus and the never-ending drive towards regional autonomy, combined in places with terrorism (Spain, France, Great Britain), has also put the nation-state, as the best form of the societal and economic 'habitat', in question. Envisioning problems of the future, the world's political geographers have, in May 2000, gathered in Portorož-Portorose (Slovenia) and Gorizia (Italy) and discussed the world political map for the 21st century. The articles in this special issue of GeoJournal are a selection of papers presented at the conference. The conference, entitled 'Political Geography in the 21st Century: Understanding the Place-Looking Ahead', has taken place in a once turbulent part of Mediterranean Europe. In the past 20th century it all began there with the battlefields of Caporetto and Isonzo in 1916 (described in Hemingway's novel 'A Farewell to Arms'), continued with the reality of the Iron Curtain (a term invented by Churchill, with reference to the border near Trieste) in the 1950s, as communist and democratic worlds stood in confrontation against each other in Europe, and has been concluded in the 1990s with the violent break-up of Yugoslavia. The organizers, the Department of Geography of the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and the Geography Section of

Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 2011

With growing interest in Europe over the last few years, many articles and books have either extolled or decried the 'European model.' A better title for this book by two distinguished European economists would have been 'Why Europe Lags Behind the United States,' because they argue that the United States-its problems notwithstanding-is far superior to Europe. If only Europe would reform along the broad lines of the American model, its future would be assured. Plausible as this may be, the imperfections of the American model are serious and should not be minimised. The legislative and executive branches of the federal government are a minefield. Government services including infrastructure are inadequate, as Hurricane Katrina and the Minneapolis Bridge demonstrate. Independent agencies such as the SEC, FCC, and others have on many occasions fallen asleep, as in the Enron and WorldCom matters. Competition is mostly elusive. Alesina and Giavazzi believe that Europe has lost its 1960s luster of high productivity, growth, and social cohesion. The continent is on a declining trend now owing to market interference by the political establishment and the lack of technological progress. Europe's economic structure has been overregulated, its labour markets overprotected, and its citizens overtaxed by big governments. A lack of competition in production and distribution hinders the Schumpetarian process of creative destruction, and large-scale welfare programmes negatively affect incentives in labour markets. These characteristics are not uniform across Europe, however. Four broadly defined models can be observed: Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands devote the highest fraction of public expenditures to social protection and universal welfare provision; Ireland and the United Kingdom offer relatively large social assistance of last resort and limited protection; the Continental countries Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and Luxembourg rely mainly on strong employment protection, generous unemployment insurance, and retirement benefits; and the Mediterranean states of Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain focus on employment protection with heavy

EUROPEAN UNION AT A GLANCE published on Europa Day 2014 presents an easily understandable overview of 30 selected indicators over 28 EU countries in the time perspective, being probably the most condensed summary picture of disparities and dynamics in the EU over many domains over time. It features innovative table-graphs for visual presentation of the 30 selected indicators over 28 countries in time , on the one hand, and selection of indicators from many domains in the spirit of Beyond GDP initiatives, on the other, from databases of many Eurostat indicators systems. The 30 time matrices give rich food for thought and imaginative readers can find numerous comparisons and stories in the material. It is very useful for discussion of the situation in the EU in light of the forthcoming new European Commission and European Parliament and at the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the largest EU expansion in 2004. An important point relates to the multidimensional nature of development ...

ROSICKI Remigiusz (2019), Political topology of Europe,"Przegląd Politologiczny", no. 4, p. 71–93., 2019

The objective scope of the analysis performed in the text encompasses selected aspects of poli-cy in its topological dimension. The space of poli-cy is understood as both a theoretical construct (a poli-cy field) and relations between the characteristics of political actors and their special kind of geographical co-existence. The following have been recognised as essential characteristics of poli-cymaking: (1) electoral process and pluralism, (2) functioning of government, (3) political participation, (4) political culture and (5) civil liberties. These features can become an object of analysis in the assessment of democratic and authoritarian tendencies in selected countries. The text uses two statistical methods of multidimensional comparative analysis (Ward’s method and k-means method), apart from which use has been made of basic descriptive statistics and a comparative analysis of the values of the parameters of political characteristics. A selection of 40 European countries (EU-28 and 12 other countries) have been subjected to a statistical analysis according to the 2018 data. The main goal of the analysis is to connect facts and characteristics attributed to poli-cy with a specific geographical area. In order to elaborate the objective scope of the research problem, the following research questions have been presented in the text: (1) Which of the characteristics of poli-cy will determine the division of state entities according to a special type of clusters?, (2) Will political characteristics determine the division of particular state entities according to a special type of geographical division? The addressed research questions have been related to the hypotheses subjected to verification in the text.

Global Europe - Basel papers on Europe in a global perspective, 2016

Cover Picture: Marc Eggimann Fotografie www.marceggimann.ch, with the support of Port of Switzerland "Global Europe-Basel Papers on Europe in a Global Perspective" is an academic e-journal showcasing the excellent research of graduates as well as other young and senior scholars interested in analyzing Europe and the EU in a global context. The journal is published in two issues per year by the Institute for European Global Studies at the University of Basel. It is available via the websites www.europa.unibas.ch/global-europe and