The EU's Management of the Euro Crisis
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The EU’s Management of the Euro Crisis: A Discursive Policy Analysis Joan Miró A thesis submitted to the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy September 2019 Author: Joan Miró PhD programme in Political Science, Public Policies and International Relations Department of Political Science and Public Law Supervisors: Margarita León, Department of Political Science and Public Law, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Joan Subirats, Department of Political Science and Public Law, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 1 Title of the thesis: The EU’s Management of the Euro Crisis: A Discursive Policy Analysis Author: Joan Miró Artigas PhD programme in Political Science, Public Policies and International Relations Political Science and Public Administration Unit, Department of Political Science and Public Law Supervisors: Margarita León, Department of Political Science and Public Law, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Joan Subirats, Department of Political Science and Public Law, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 2 “with a cruelty that I’ve never encountered [Joe Biden, US vice president] said that the only way to get the market’s confidence is to take decisions that make you suffer really badly […] that you are credible in a given set of circumstances if you subject your citizens to difficult tests and if unions openly reject your policies – in brief, if there are tears and suffering” (Rodríguez Zapatero 2013: 102) 3 Table of Contents Agraïments .................................................................................................................................... 6 Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 8 List of abbreviations ...................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 10 1.1 The context ........................................................................................................................ 10 1.2 On paradigms of European monetary integration and crisis construals ........................... 20 1.2.1 Two paradigms of European economic and monetary integration............................. 20 1.2.2 Two diagnoses regarding the euro crisis ................................................................... 22 1.2.3 The new European Economic Governance ............................................................... 24 1.2.4 The ‘forgotten’ alternative reform paths ..................................................................... 28 1.3 The research problem ....................................................................................................... 29 1.4 The literature and the argument: the discursive is crucial ................................................. 32 1.4.1 The role of economic constraints ............................................................................... 32 1.4.2 The force of institutional path-dependencies ............................................................. 36 1.4.3 The power of economic and political interests ........................................................... 38 1.4.4 The role of ideas and discourse ................................................................................. 42 1.5 The research questions and aims ..................................................................................... 49 1.6 The structure of the thesis ................................................................................................. 49 CHAPTER 2. THE ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORKS OF THE THESIS: DISCURSIVE APPROACHES TO POLICY ANALYSIS .................................................................................... 51 2.1 Introduction: policy analysis and Discourse Studies ......................................................... 51 2.2 Comparing analytical approaches ..................................................................................... 57 2.3 The ideational scholarship in political economy ................................................................ 59 2.4 Discursive institutionalism ................................................................................................. 62 2.5 Poststructuralist Discourse Theory ................................................................................... 64 2.6 The interpretive approach to governance ......................................................................... 70 CHAPTER 3. THE METHODOLOGY AND METHODS OF THE THESIS ................................. 73 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 73 3.2 The logics approach as a methodological background ..................................................... 73 3.3 Content analysis ................................................................................................................ 76 3.4 Elite interviews and elite surveys ...................................................................................... 77 3.5 The case study approach: a specific focus on the legitimation of austerity in the EMU’s periphery .................................................................................................................................. 78 CHAPTER 4. ARTICLE I: ‘BEYOND POPULISM AND INSTITUTIONALISM: ANTI-POPULISM AND THE MANAGEMENT OF AUSTERITY IN SPAIN’ ............................................................. 81 CHAPTER 5. ARTICLE II: ‘ABOLISHING POLITICS IN THE SHADOW OF AUSTERITY? ASSESSING THE (DE)POLITICIZATION OF BUDGETARY POLICY IN CRISIS-RIDDEN SPAIN (2008-2015)’ .................................................................................................................... 82 4 CHAPTER 6. ARTICLE III: ‘IN THE NAME OF COMPETITIVENESS: A DISCURSIVE INSTITUTIONALIST ANALYSIS OF THE EU’S APPROACH TO LABOUR MARKET STRUCTURAL REFORM, 2007-2016’ ....................................................................................... 83 CHAPTER 7. ARTICLE IV: ‘AUSTERITY’S FAILURES AND POLICY LEARNING: MAPPING EUROPEAN COMMISSION OFFICIALS’ BELIEFS ON FISCAL GOVERNANCE IN THE POST- CRISIS EU’ .................................................................................................................................. 84 CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................... 85 8.1 Contributions ..................................................................................................................... 85 8.2 Limitations and possibilities of future research ................................................................. 87 8.3