Assembling Conditionality in the Republic of Macedonia

Abstract

For EU policymakers currently insisting on the moral economy of austerity in response to the banking and subsequent sovereign debt crisis in Southern Europe, the case of Greece suggests a particular lesson: Inadequate conditionality in social and subjective dimensions of political- economic life prior to membership (i.e. the alleged inefficiency of the Greek worker, corruption of the Greek official, and profligacy of the Greek consumer) breeds social disorder and economic contagion. That other explanations for the crisis are possible — in particular, that the introduction of the euro encouraged unsustainable lending practices and wage inflation in Southern Europe as Germany’s export markets surged (Krugman 2012) — is of little importance. The specter of an unconditionalized Greece seemingly makes the work of conditionality in the Republic of Macedonia and other candidate states in ‘the Balkans’ (a region long understood to be potentially dangerous) all the more vital.