European Disintegration?: Markets, Institutions, and Legitimacy

The article examines the crisis of the Eurozone from a political economy perspective. The product of failure of markets and institutions in a currency union without a state, the crisis gets deeper, while national governments and European institutions venture into the territory of “unthinkables.” Among the obstacles they need to overcome, economic diversity, populism and the distribution of costs figure prominently. There is a lively public debate in Europe on ways and means of dealing with the crisis. Most of us now agree about what needs to be done, but we are not sure whether it will be politically feasible.