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Governing by Panic

The Politics of the Eurozone Crisis

Bibliographic Data

ID2317348
AuthorsDavid M Woodruff (London School of Economics and Political Science, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume44
Issue1
Pages81-116
Publication date2016-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLatin American Politics and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1531-426X • E-ISSN: 1548-2456
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0032329215617465
OpenAlexW2601402697
LanguageEN
Citations received25
References cited36

The Eurozone's reaction to the crisis beginning in late 2008 involved not only efforts to mitigate the arbitrarily destructive effects of markets but also vigorous pursuit of policies aimed at austerity and deflation. To explain this paradoxical outcome, I build on Karl Polanyi's account of a similar deadlock in the 1930s. Polanyi argued that a society-protecting response to malfunctioning markets was limited under the gold standard by the prospect of currency panic, which bankers used to push for austerity, deflationary policies, and labor's political marginalization. I reconstruct Polanyi's 'governing by panic' theory to explain Eurozone policy during three key episodes of sovereign bond market panic in 2010-12. By threatening to allow financial panics to continue, the European Central Bank promoted policies and institutional changes aimed at austerity and deflation, limiting the protective response. Germany's Ordoliberalism, and its weight in European affairs, contributed to the credibility of this threat

Austerity · Credibility · Currency · Deflation · Economic policy · Economics · European debt crisis · European integration · European union · Financial crisis · Financial market · Keynesian economics · Monetary economics · Monetary policy · Panic · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sovereignty · Finance · Global Financial Crisis and Policies · Global Financial Regulation and Crises · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism

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Unique citing works25
Citations per year2,78
Citation span2017 - 2026 (10)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 25
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