Abstract
The emergence of a continental entity of political economy is a long and complicated process. Since the end of World War 2 Europe has experienced rather different stages to reach its current form. These big and often rather abrupt shifts in the perspective of a united Europe usually were just elements in the pulsating development of the global political economy; Europe always has to be understood as a vital and large part of the world economy.
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Notes
- 1.
In the beginning of the period the shock that parts of the ruling class evidently had been supporting Fascist regimes motivated more humanistic-oriented parts to co-operate with the labour movement representatives—at least at the level of state institutions. But a divided ruling class was a weaker ruling class. This development lead to an increasing influence of the state on economic affairs and became the basis for the so-called European Social Model.
- 2.
At second glance another advantage of European nations was that due to their destructed capital stock they easily could immediately install most advanced technologies, whereas US firms had the problem of non-existing markets for out-dated capital. Schumpeter’s ‘creative destruction’ necessary for innovation appeared to favour Germany and Japan.
- 3.
See Hanappi (1994, pp. 103–162) for a detailed discussion on Stalinist production systems.
- 4.
In Hanappi (2014) a more detailed account of the history of some South-Eastern European countries is provided.
- 5.
Two elements of this second coming of US hegemony can be distinguished: The weaker US Dollar helped US exporters (1). High US interest rates, provoked by Ronald Reagan’s enormous military expenditures, were attracting European capital and thus were driving European interest rates upwards, which in turn killed investment demand in Europe (2).
- 6.
See Hanappi (2010) for a more detailed description of the development of social democracy.
- 7.
See Hanappi (2013) for a concise policy program needed in the short-run.
- 8.
The chapter also provides some insight why and how far econometric analysis is an important tool for political economy.
Bibliography
Hanappi, H. (1994). Evolutionary economics. The evolutionary revolution in the social sciences. Aldershot: Avebury Publishers.
Hanappi, H. (2010). The beat of visions. The challenging features of a new global mode of production. In Paper contributed to SGIR 7th Pan-European International Relations Conference—Politics in Hard Times: International Relations Responses to the Financial Crisis. Stockholm, Sept 9–11, 2010. Published as MPRA Paper No. 28398.
Hanappi, H. (2013). Can Europe survive? Ten commandments for Europe’s next ten years. In A. Balcerzak (Ed.), Growth perspectives in Europe (pp. 27–92). Torun: Polish Economic Society. Also available as working paper: Papers for Evolutionary Political Economics (PEPE, No 9, 2012).
Hanappi, H. (Ed.). (2014). South-East Europe in evolution. London: Routledge.
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Katsikides, S., Hanappi, H. (2016). Conclusion—The Birth of Europe. In: Katsikides, S., Hanappi, H. (eds) Society and Economics in Europe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21431-3_16
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