European Politics Exam Two Study Guide

European Politics Exam Two Study Guide

The Welfare State

“The state plays the primary role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens”
Social “insurance” common to most advanced industrial countries
Involves direct transfer of funds from public sector to welfare recipients
Differs from sources of private aid
Means-tested vs. “blanket” assistance
Means-tested – ex: unemployment
“Blanket” assistance – ex: pension
Context/origins: came out of Great Depression and WWII
How do we measure welfare?
Tax rates, tax types
Government expenditure as % of GDP?
Specific policies
Cultural aspects like support for equality and redistribution of wealth?
Benefactor: state, market, family, voluntary organizations
Esping-Anderson (1990): 3 important components
The 3 important components:
De-commodification: degree to which social rights exist to allow people to make a living independent of pure market forces
Social stratification: degree of inequality between classes
Employment: % of working-age population with a job
3 types of welfare states
Liberal:
Least de-commodifying and most market differentiated
We often attach moreal conditions (see individual to blame, not the market)
Ex: US
Conservative:
Primarily based around church, family, occupation, traditional values
Hierarchical, status-distinctive
Ex: Germany
Social democratic:
Highly de-commidifying and universalist programs
Ideas of basic/minimal social rights
Ex:
What causes a big welfare state?
5 categories of factors
Economic: growth, GDP
Fiscal: taxation (direct vs. indirect/invisible)
Electoral/political: frequency of elections, partisan/ideological leanings
Institutional: government centralization, wage bargaining/interest group structure
Corporist (labor union, private government) vs. pluralist (labor union vs. private government (?))
International: global economy, size of state (small, homogenous), globalization, deindustrialization
Is the welfare state in crisis?
“The Middle Way”
Retrenchment = privatizing, cutting back the welfare state
Austerity = trying to spend the smallest amount possible
Demographic trends = strain on welfare state
Different type of Welfare States Graph

Is the welfare state dead?
Crisis; demand for austerity
Youtube video
Culprit?
“Big government”: spending, transfers, tax rates
See table 10.3, textbook p. 275
Socialized medicine
ARG: textbook p. 285

Introduction to the European Union

Supranational

History
2 videos
Info of videos on European questionnaire sheet
Why join the EU?
Once upon at time . . .
Back in the 1940s
EU did not become known as EU until 1993
But existed back in the 1950s
WWII incredibly devastating
EU started in an agreement between France and Germany
French leaders (2 leaders: Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman) came up with idea that France and Germany should link economies to make them dependent on each other to make future war not at all likely
Called the Monnet Plan
Then led to creation of the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community)
Historical context behind ESCS
Postwar reconstruction and economic recovery
With or without Germany?
Yes, Germany important
Marshall Plan (1948 – 1953)
1947: Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OECD)
Prior integration effort
Just to keep in mind prior attempts did happen
Cold War: US vs. USSR
NATO
Elites’ desire for “United States of Europe”
Jean Monnet: supranationalist aspirations  The Monnet Plan
Robert Schuman: Schuman Declaration (5/9/1950)
Voicing the Monnet Plan
Famous speech
Security and welfare
European Steel and Coal Community 1951 (/1952)
Timeline
1951  Treaty of Paris  ECSC with 6 members
1957  Treaty of Rome  EEC and EURATOM
Still 6 members, doing well so want to expand
Link all economies, free market
EEC – European Economic Community
European Atomic Agency – EURATOM
1973  consolidation of all 3 (ECSC, EEC, EURATOM) into one European Community (EC)
3 new members
1992  Treaty of Maastricht  EU
1993 – official title EU
1997-1999 Treaty of Amsterdam
2000-2001 Treaty of Nice
2004-2005 European Constitution  FAILS
2007-2010 Treaty of Lisbon
MISSING NOTES

The European Union

MISSING NOTES

The three main actors
The European Parliament
The “Council”
Euro Council
Council of the EU
The European Commission
**No single over arching president of the EU**
Each institution has someone in charge
The European Commission
Executive branch
Most supranational: aka “Brussels”
Oath to “put Europe first”
Executive and bureaucratic branch
Powers of initiation and implementation
Budget/finances; external relations
President College of Commissioners (28)
Renewable 5 year terms
Must be approved by European Council
High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (post-Lisbon)
Directorates-General (DG)
Comitology
Network of advisory, management, and regulatory committees involved in decision-making
EU centers
Visit website

European Council
Most intergovernmental!
Gives national voices more of a say
Summit of heads of state or government for all 28 member states
Meet to make decisions, discuss problems
President: Donald Tusk (Dec. 2014)
Tension between EU interest and national interests
So supranational vs. intergovernmental
Council of the EU
Also intergovernmental . . . but??
Relevant cabinet members of all 28 national governments
Coreper Committee of Permanent Residents
Qualified majority voting (Treaty of Nice)
6-month rotating Presidency:
18 month “trio”/”Troika System”: Italy (Jul-Dec 2014), Latvia (incumbent) and Luxembourg (Jul-Dec 2015)
PR to make citizens have pride – they are proud when their country is president
4 major presidencies  only one held by country as a whole
Qualified majority voting
55% of votes, from at least 15 member states that together comprise 65% of EU population
Member state number of votes depends on size of population
European Parliament (EP)
Supranational?
Multi-state dilemma . . . “traveling circus”
Legislative arm (shares power with council)
Consultation, cooperation, consent
Direct elections since 1979 . . . but credibility problem
751 members (MEPs) elected for fixed and renewable 5-yr terms
Next one: Spring 2019
How laws are made

Eurozone: why?
Eurozone – term that only applies to countries that use the Euro currency
Optimum Currency Area (OCA)
Benefits:
 integration
 transaction costs
 trade
 exchange rates/risk uncertainty
Price parity (eventually)
Eurozone: who?
Must be EU member state to use the euro currency, but not all EU members do
19 members in the Eurozone
~335 million people
3 said “no thanks”
Remaining 6 coming on board soon . . .
Eurozone: how?
EMU = Economic and Monetary Union of the EU
Finishing documentary
What caused the crisis?
German perspective and Greece perspective
What countries most affected? How and why?
Proposed solutions?
Eurozone: crisis
BBC documentary
Concept of solidarity present
German citizens, despite their frustrations, still support helping Greece out
What went wrong? What “caused” the crisis?
Importing extravagant cars and goods form other countries
“Too much borrowing”
2004 Olympics
Economic diversity
Not all countries in Europe on the same page when they started using the euro
Competitiveness??
Inflexible monetary policy with the euro
Greece fudged their numbers from the beginning
Probably why Greece is most affected by this crisis
Not all countries met the criteria to join the Eurozone from the beginning
This was not a secret
Tax evasion
Greece had very generous welfare state
Corruption
What countries are affected? How/why?
Greece, Germany
Affects the entire Eurozone
PIIGS countries
Main countries in Eurozone that have had trouble since the 2007/08 crisis
Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain
Seen the most severe government debt
Have needed bail outs
High unemployment
Very very severely affected by the crisis
What are some of the proposed solutions?
Eurozone: how?
1993: Convergence Criteria (Maastricht)
Treaty of Maastricht included section on its intent to create an Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)
Specific criteria countries start working toward if they wanted to have common currency
Criteria: (main things countries needed to do if they wanted to join the Eurozone)
Budget deficit of < 3% GDP
Spending > than what its bringing in  deficit
Debt ratio < 60% GDP
Low inflation: no more than 1.5% higher than the average of the best 3 performing member states
Interest rates close to EU average: can’t be more than 2% higher than in 3 lowest inflation member states
Called the convergence criteria
Still the same today
1997: Stability and Growth Pact (SGP)
Further elaboration of countries’ commitments to uphold the Convergence criteria
Reaffirming their commitment
ECB (Euro Central Bank) vs. national governments
Recall monetary vs. fiscal control . . .
The Eurozone and ECB has centralized monetary policy for the member states
(ECB) but never took over authority in the fiscal realm
Monetary control but never took over fiscal control
1999: electronic introduction
2002: cash introduction of the euro
Why didn’t anyone care that Greece fudged its numbers?
Greece was not the only country that did this
Greece did fudge them the most, but not the only one
Very strong belief that if we got these countries into the Eurozone everything would work out in time
Bottom line: Greece was not alone
Euro crisis
In 2004 and 2005 something very important happened
Economies of big players (Germany and France) went through troubles (and neither held up their convergence criteria these years)
ECB didn’t punish them for this and they were in a position to get out of their situation
Set an empirical precedent: big players aren’t following the rules so we won’t either
Then spending got way out of hand
MORAL HAZARD
Ignoring fudged numbers and ignoring Germany and France, countries didn’t take the Convergence criteria as seriously
Exceptions to the rule can have a very bad domino affect
Causes
Main causes – countries all throughout the Eurozone had a lot of access to funds, could borrow very easily, took advantage of this
Almost free access to money, got out of hand
Cheap access to money and got out of hand
Couldn’t pay back all they had borrowed
Who did they borrow from?
Economically strong countries (like Germany and France and the UK)
Everyone’s economic standing is tied together
Underlying point
Huge spiderweb, tangled mess
Causes of the crisis (reading from last class)
So many things played into the causes
One-size fits all monetary policy
All controlled by ECB
Misplaced confidence and assessment of risk
Economic divergence and trade imbalance
Country-specific factors
Solutions to the Euro crisis?
No pre-existing mechanism or plan for what would be done in the face of financial difficulty
Osterity – governments have to change the way they’re doing things in order to fix this
Kick Greece out? Greece leave on their own?
Nothing really about it in convergence criteria
Would lose a lot of money if Greece left (Greece owes a lot of debt money)

Identity

The basics
Identity matters
Self esteem
Interpersonal interaction
Intergroup relations
Political attitudes and behavior
Identity has capacity to facilitate or obstruct collective action
Collective action is getting different people to all come on board for a certain cause
Self-identification exercise
DON’T CONFUSE
Attributes – they are primodial
We don’t choose
Role
Things we do, activities
Identity – VERY distinct from roles and attributes
Things that can be manipulated
Categories that take attributes, roles, ideas, etc. and politicize them
Politicized
Subjective
Increased salience
Mobilize people
Identity
Definition: “that part of the individual’s self-concept which derives from his knowledge of his membership of a social group (or groups) together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership”
Identity (actual identity/group) vs. identification (to what degree do you identify with that identity (varies per person))
Dual process – when determining if someone holds a certain identity
You go through 2 psychological processes:
Self-categorization
Placing yourself into particular group
Social comparison
Role of the other
US vs. THEM
Who we are not helps define who we are
Problem because ingroup (us) is seen as better than the outgroup (them)
What is “identity”
Role
“The expected social behavior of an individual”
Attribute
“A quality or characteristics inherent in or ascribed to someone or something”
“A property, quality, or feature . . .”
Identity
See definition
Manipulation of identity
Roles and attributes get manipulated by things in society
How things get politicized into identities
Watched part of PBS video
A Class Divided
“A Class Divided”
She politicized eye color
Institutionalized discrimination
Collar of distinction
No water fountain
The rules she put in place
Results
Eye color on bottom was quiter, slower at tasks, etc.
It was hard to undo what happened
Lasted long after the experiment
Identity is something very unique
Politicization of roles and attributes somehow gets large salience attached to them and has effects on society, etc.
Making them good or bad, placing some value on it (roles and attributes)
Why does identity mitigate hate?
Stereotypes (stereotype about the “other”, the outgroup, an enemy)
Heuristics – cognitive shortcuts
Political entrepreneurs
Perceived threat
Realistic – economic or financial threat (or monetary)
Symbolic – threat to who we are as our ingroup
Identity threat
Getting back to how this applies to Europe . . . Why we care about nationalism . . .
Identity getting manipulated and justifying bad things like genocide, etc.
Jenkins and Sofus (1996) (reading for today)
Resurgence of “nationalism” in post-Cold War context
“Balkanization,” globalization, localization
ARG: a political phenomenon
An identity is political, its politicized
A malleable artifact: “complex social meanings constantly being transformed by political struggle”
Feeds off of raw collective identities
Imagined communities (only 200 years in . . .)
Ideas that people in power created a story about what it was like to live in that community and that they want to get back to how it was
Missing rest of notes

Immigration