THE END OF WHICH EUROPEAN ERA? THE CURRENT CRISIS OF EUROPE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE in “Annals of the Fondazione L. Einaudi. Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics, History and Political Science”, numero monografico “Reconstruction in Europe – 100 Years Later”, 2, 2017 (original) (raw)
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Journal of European Studies
This introduction addresses the increased levels of social, political and ideological polarization and the socio-political conflicts in contemporary Europe that are often subsumed under notions of ‘crisis’. We argue that the humanities and social sciences must react to these scenarios in at least two ways: by critically reflecting on the European project, and by analysing key elements of current ‘crisis’ discourses, such as post-factual narratives of ‘decline’, ‘survival’ and ‘emergency’, and populist fictions of homogeneous, ‘tribal’ cultural domains.
What is to be learned from the chaotic downfall of the Weimar Republic and the erosion of European liberal statehood in the interwar period vis-a-vis the ongoing Europeancrisis? This book analyses and explains the recurrent emergence of crises in European societies. It asks how previous crises can inform our understanding of the present crisis. The particular perspective advanced is that these crises not only are economic and social crises, but must also be understood as crises of public power, order and authority. In other words, it argues that substantial challenges to the functional and normative setup of democracy and the rule of law were central to the emergence and the unfolding of these crises.The book draws on and adds to the rich ’crises literature’ developed within the critical theory tradition to outline a conceptual framework for understanding what societal crises are. The central idea is that societal crises represent a discrepancy between the unfolding of social processes and the institutional frameworks that have been established to normatively stabilize such processes. The crises at issue emerged in periods characterized by strong social, economic and technological transformations as well as situations of political upheaval. As such, the crises represented moments where the existing functional and normative grid of society, as embodied in notions of public order and authority, were severely challenged and in many instances undermined. Seen in this perspective, the book reconstructs how crises unfolded, how they were experienced, and what kind of responses the specific crises in question provoked. List of Content Introduction: European Crises of Public Power: From Weimar until Today, Poul F. Kjaer & Niklas Olsen / PART I: Semantics, Notions and Narratives of Societal Crisis / 1. What Time Frame Makes Sense for Thinking about Crises?, David Runciman / 2. The Stakes of Crises, Janet Roitman / PART II: Weimar and the Interwar Period: Ideologies of Anti-Modernism and Liberalism / 3.The Crisis of Modernity – Modernity as Crisis: Towards a Typology of Crisis Discourses in Interwar East Central Europe and Beyond, Balázs Trencsényi / 4. European Legitimacy Crises – Weimar and Today: Rational and Theocratic Authority in the Schmitt-Strauss Exchange, John P. McCormick / 5.Crisis and the Consumer: Re-constructions of Liberalism in Twentieth Century Political Thought, Niklas Olsen / PART III: The Causes of Crises: From Corporatism to Governance / 6. The Constitutionalisation of Labour Law and the Crisis of National Democracy, Chris Thornhill / 7. Conflict and the Crisis in Labour Law: From Weimar to Austerity, Ruth Dukes / 8. From the Crisis of Corporatism to the Crisis of Governance, Poul F. Kjaer / PART IV: The Euro and the Crisis of Law and Democracy / 9. What is Left of the European Economic Constitution II? From Pyrrhic Victory to Cannae Defeat, Christian Joerges / 10. Reflections on Europe’s “Rule of Law Crises”, Jan-Werner Müller / 11. Democracy under Siege: The Decay of Constitutionalisation and the Crisis of Public Law and Public Opinion, Hauke Brunkhorst / PART V: The Consequences of Crises and the Future of Europe / 12. Crises and Extra-Legality: From Above and from Below, William E. Scheuerman / 13. “We could Go down the Road of Lebanon”: Crisis Thinking on the Anti-Muslim Far Right, Mikkel Thorup / 14. Conclusion and Perspectives: The Re-constitution of Europe, Poul F. Kjaer & Niklas Olsen Review and review essays: Romain Bonnet (2017): European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire, DOI: 10.1080/13507486.2017.1317054 Andreas Marklund (2018) Historisk Tidsskrift, 117, 2, 637 – 39. Pablo Holmes (2018), ‘The constitutional politics of crisis in Europe’, Culture, Practice & European Policy, 3, 2, 92 – 98.
The Eurozone Crisis: historical, geopolitical and theoretical perspectives.
This paper argues that the boom and bust in Europe since the 1990s make more sense when seen as part of a history of displacements and dislocations within the EU since at least the 1950s. That post-war tale is part of a larger European narrative reaching back to the mid nineteenth century, driven by bloody rivalry and tense cooperation between Germany and France. In fact, these historical dramas are ‘nested’ one inside the other like a Russian doll. Note that a later and expanded version of this draft paper, originally written in 2014, has now appeared in Hans-Jörg Trenz, Carlo Ruzza and Virginie Guiraudon (eds), Europe’s Prolonged Crisis. The making or the unmaking of a political union, London: Palgrave Macmillan (2015) with the title ‘Not just singing the blues.’
CONFERENCE: EUROPEAN CRISES FROM WEIMAR UNTILL TODAY: HISTORY, ECONOMY, POLITICS, LAW
From the Weimar Republic and interwar period over the 1970s to the current debacle over the Euro, crises and crisis semantics has been a recurrent theme of European modern history. Although being very different in terms of causes, developments and consequences these three crises share that they were characterized by economic downturns, social upheavals and forceful ideological formations and semantic innovations which have both challenged and transformed democracy and the state of law. On this background, this conference seeks to take a closer look at the many variants of the crises phenomenon in the European context from the early 20th century until today by looking at the complex interplay between structural transformations within the economy and institutionalized politics and law and the ideological formations and semantic innovations which complemented these transformations. Speakers are: Christian Borch (CBS); Hauke Brunkhorst (University of Flensburg); Ruth Dukes (University of Glasgow); Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann (UC Berkeley); Christian Joerges (Hertie School of Governance, Berlin); Poul F. Kjaer (CBS); John P. McCormick (University of Chicago); Claus Offe (Hertie School of Governance, Berlin); Niklas Olsen (University of Copenhagen); David Runciman (Cambridge University); William Scheuerman (Indiana University); Chris Thornhill (University of Manchester); Mikkel Thorup (Aarhus University).
THE EUROPEAN UNION VIS-À-VIS 2001 ONWARDS CRISES
In this paper, I will address the relation between policies and crises having the European Union as focus. Firstly, there will be an analysis on the European Union narratives; succeeded by an exposition of the most relevant crises of the 1 dawning 21st century; and then the effects of these crises on the narrative and policies of the EU will be the foci. At this paper the relations between European Thought, EU policies (Mainly Foreign Affairs, Economic and Social Policies, and Defence Policy) and international crises will be highlighted, showing aspects that are the same as before, and what has changed in politics and policies.
This paper provides a brief synopsis of Europe’s recent development and derives some ideas for future policy. It explains the case of the Greek crisis in more detail and uses it to show why it is part of a larger European malaise. The final chapter argues that European unification still can continue if some rather radical changes in the institutional framework of the EU are envisaged. Though the odds currently are against such a relaunch of the European pilot project, the pressure from the streets of Europe can rapidly increase and can thus – with appropriate vision-building from progressive intellectuals – lead to a civilized transition towards a second European Renaissance.