Leonard, M. & Torreblanca, I. (2014) “The Eurosceptic Surge and How to Respond to It“, Policy Brief, European Council on Foreign Relations, 08 May. Pollsters are predicting a Eurosceptic surge at the European elections, which take place at a time when the European Union is going through the worst economic and political crisis in its history. Although the main pro-European forces want to turn this election into a left–right …Read More
Castro-Conde, C. A. (2014) “The positions of European political parties offer a clear choice to voters over what type of Europe they would like to see“, LSE EUROPP, 08 May. European Parliament elections have often been criticised from the perspective that they fail to engage voters. Cristina Ares Castro-Conde presents a comprehensive comparison of the positions contained within the manifestos of all of the main European political parties. She …Read More
Onaran, O. & Stockhammer, E. (2014) “Raising wages should be a key component of economic growth strategies across the world“, LSE EUROPP, 07 May. What impact do wages have on economic growth? Ozlem Onaran and Engelbert Stockhammer write that the size of wages as a percentage of state GDP has been falling across the world. They argue that this poses a problem because the negative impact on aggregate …Read More
Van Hooren, F., Kaasch, A. & Starke, P. (2014) “The shock routine: economic crisis and the nature of social policy responses“, Journal of European Public Policy, Vol. 21 Issue 4, Taylor and Francis Online, 21 March. The idea that moments of crisis form opportunities for fundamental policy change is widespread in political science and public policy. It is usually associated with historical institutionalism and the notion of ‘critical junctures’. …Read More
Kelemen, R. D., Menon, A. & Slapin, J. (2014) “The European Union: wider and deeper?“, Routledge Publications, Journal of European Public Policy, Vol. 21, No. 5, pp. 643-646, 28 April. What is the relationship between widening and deepening in the European Union (EU)? Does the addition of new member states affect the process of centralization – that is to say, whether and how member states transfer ever more authority …Read More
Wren-Lewis, S. (2014) “Central bank advice on austerity“, Mainly Macro Blog, 05 May. As I wrote recently, the economic debate on the impact on austerity is over bar the details. Fiscal contraction when interest rates are at their zero lower bound is likely to have a significant negative impact on output. Of course the popular debate goes on, because of absurd claims that recovering from austerity somehow validates it. …Read More
Conti, N. (ed.) (2014) “Party Attitudes towards the EU in the Member States – Parties for Europe, Parties against Europe“, Routledge Advances in European Politics, Routledge Publications: United Kingdom. In a moment where the EU is facing an important number of challenges, there is growing interest in understanding how parties influence the way Europe evolves as a political issue, notably how parties structure domestic competition over European issues and …Read More
Gordon, N. J. & Ringe, G. (2014) “How to save bank resolution in the European banking union“, VoxEU Organisation, 30 April. The European Parliament recently adopted the Single Resolution Mechanism. Though supposed to be a pillar of the European banking union, it is fraught with difficulties. This column makes a proposal for a new organisational structure that can deal with bank failure more effectively. European banks should be required …Read More
McDonnell, D. (2014) “The rise of Euroscepticism across Europe has masked general apathy about the European elections among voters“, LSE EUROPP, 29 April. Marine Le Pen’s Front National and Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom have announced that they intend to form a ‘Eurosceptic alliance’ in the European Parliament after the 2014 European elections. Duncan McDonnell writes that while the overall picture in the European elections will see Eurosceptic parties …Read More
Pisani-Ferry, J. (2014) “Europe’s Trapped Politics”, Project Syndicate, 29 April. PARIS – When the last European Parliament election was held, in 2009, it seemed that Europe’s citizens were all facing the same dangers. Across the continent, governments were busy coping with the consequences of the global crisis that had erupted the year before. Five years later, on the eve of another European Parliament election, the situation could not be …Read More
