Joined at the hip, but pulling apart? Franco-German relations, the Eurozone crisis and the politics of austerity

What is it about?

This article situates analysis of French macroeconomic policy developments under Hollande’s presidency within a wider context of macroeconomic policy autonomy under conditions of capital mobility, and the political economy of European economic governance. It focuses on the crucial Franco-German relationship because of its centrality to the evolution of the Euro since its inception. The analysis unearths different state traditions informing the distinct economic ideas about austerity, economic policy, economic governance and regulation which underpin French and German visions for the future European economic integration and European economic policy.

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Why is it important?

The article establishes the historical and ideational conditions of German approaches to European integration and European Monetary Union (EMU), and how these have shaped continuities within French European economic strategy, and Hollande’s approach to the architecture of the Euro, focusing in particular on fiscal policy dimensions and their recent evolutions. The discussion explores the foundations of German veto power within European agreements by ‘kicking the tyres’ of the German Ordo-liberal political economic settlement and its social underpinnings, finding evidence of corrosive tendencies of declining mass party support linked to anaemic output and productivity growth, , rising inequality and deficient demand undermining German export surpluses. Yet, time is an important factor in politics, and these corrosive tendencies are unlikely to generate a change in the Franco-German relation during Hollande’s Presidential tenure.