New Book by Claus Offe: "Europe Entrapped"

Europe Entrapped

by Claus Offe

(Wiley / Polity Press, 2014)

104 pages




Description

Today Europe finds itself in a crisis that casts a dark shadow over an entire generation. The seriousness of the crisis stems from one core political contradiction at the heart of the European project: namely, that what urgently needs to be done is also extremely unpopular and therefore virtually impossible to do democratically. What must be done - and almost everyone agrees in principle on the measures that would be needed to deal with the financial crisis - cannot be sold to the voting public of the core member states, which so far have been less affected by the crisis than those on the periphery, nor can the conditions that core members try to impose be easily sold to voters in the deficit countries.

The European Union is therefore becoming increasingly disunited, with deepening divides between the German-dominated ‘core’ and the southern ‘periphery’, between the winners and the losers of the common currency, between the advocates of greater integration and the anti-Europeans, between the technocrats and the populists. Europe finds itself trapped by the deepening divisions that are opening up across the Continent, obstructing its ability to deal with a crisis that has already caused massive social suffering in the countries of the European periphery and is threatening to derail the very project of the European Union.

Contents 

Introduction [preview]

Democratic Capitalism and The European Union
The Nature of the Crisis
Growth, Debt, and Doom Loops
No Return to Square One
In Search of Political Agency
Finalitées: Bases of Identification with European Integration as a Political Project
The Configuration of Political Forces and Preferences
Germany's Leadership Role for Europe: A Non-Starter
"Thin" Citizenship
Redistribution Across State Borders and Social Divides

Claus Offe is Professor of Political Sociology at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.

The book draws upon an article published in the European Law Review vol. 19 no. 5 (2013) pp. 595-611 [Abstract]. Originally published in German in Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik 2013 no. 1, titled "Europa in der Falle" (An English translation here).