Germany and its Eurozone Crisis Policy

The Impact of the Country's Ordoliberal Heritage

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7785247
AutoresRainer Hillebrand (Hochschule Fulda [email protected], autor correspondente)
Ano2015
Volume33
Fascículo1
Páginas6-24
Data de publicação2015-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoGerman Politics & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1045-0300 • E-ISSN: 1558-5441
EditoraBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3167/gps.2015.330102
OpenAlexW2321687105
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas10

This article looks critically at the widely held view that Germany has not done enough to help overcome the Eurozone crisis. According to this line of argument, Germany has refused to comprehensively bail out crisis countries, offer mutual support in order to counter speculative attacks or endorse demand-side growth policies. This is allegedly because of a more narrowly defined national self-interest, increased EU-skepticism, and hegemonic ambitions. This article takes the perspective that such criticisms are primarily rooted in a Keynesian reading of the Eurozone troubles, whereas German policies are informed by another rationale: the ideas of so-called ordoliberalism. Generally, this traditional German school emphasizes the importance of principles, rule-based behavior, and long-term goals—and it believes in the (microeconomic) functioning of markets. Consequently, ordoliberals perceive the crisis as resulting from unsustainable debt levels and a lack of competitiveness in southern Europe, concomitant with a failure of Eurozone institutions. Based on this diagnosis, policy proposals are primarily targeted at debt reduction, as well as structural and EU institutional reforms. While Germany's crisis policy thus appears rational from an ordoliberal perspective, it is considered to be at variance with, and inadequate from the viewpoint of a Keynesian approach

Debt · Debt crisis · Economic policy · Economics · European debt crisis · European integration · European union · Financial crisis · German · Hegemony · Keynesian economics · Macroeconomics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Post-Keynesian economics · Skepticism · Economic Theory and Policy · European Monetary and Fiscal Policies · Global Financial Crisis and Policies · Law