The Euro at Ten: Europeanization, Power, and Convergence

With Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) the European Union is embarked on a major historic political project of formidable technical complexity. In January 2009 the Euro Area will be ten years old. What does the evidence from the first decade tell us about the significance of the euro for the EU and its member states? This book brings together a range of recognized academic specialists to examine the main political aspects of this question. How, and in what ways, has the euro Europeanized states (members and non-members), their institutions, policies and politics? What have been its effects on the location and use of power? Has the euro generated convergence or divergence? What political patterns can be identified? The book offers the first, in-depth and systematic political analysis of the first decade of the euro. It places the euro in its global and European contexts; offers a set of case studies of its effects on a representative sample of EU member states ('Anglo-Saxon', old 'D-Mark Zone', east central European and Baltic, Mediterranean, and Nordic); and looks at three key sectors (financial markets, wages and collective bargaining, and welfare reform). The book contributes to Europeanization studies, comparative political economy, and studies of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). It will be of major interest to students of the European Union and European integration, comparative European politics, and area and 'country' studies. Contributors to this volume - Joshua Bridwell is a Graduate Student at Emory University. Jim Buller is Lecturer in Politics at the University of York. Benjamin Cohen is Louis G. Lancaster Professor of International Political Economy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Kenneth Dyson is Research Professor in European Politics at Cardiff University, Wales. Kevin Featherstone is Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies at the London School of Economics. Magnus Feldmann is a PhD candidate and Research Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and affiliated to the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University. Paul Furlong is Professor of European Studies and Head of the School of European Studies at Cardiff University. Andrew Gamble is Professor of Politics at the University of Cambridge. Bela Greskovits is Professor of International Relations and European Studies at the Central European University, Budapest. He is author of The Political Economy of Protest and Patience. Mark Hallerberg is Professor of Political Economy and Public Management at the Hertie School of Governance. Colin Hay is Professor of Political Analysis in the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield. David Howarth is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Edinburgh. Johannes Lindvall is the Samuel Finer Post-Doctoral Fellow in Comparative Government at the University of Oxford. Huw Macartney is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at Nottingham University. Martin Marcussen is Assistant Professor of Politics at the University of Copenhagen. Michael Moran is WJM Mackenzie Professor of Government at Manchester University. Nick Parsons is Reader in French in the School of European Studies at Cardiff University. Philippe Pochet is director of the Observatoire social europeen. He is Adjunct Professor, Griffith University (Australia), invited lecturer at the Catholic University of Louvain and affiliate at the Centre of European Studies (Free University of Brussels). Lucia Quaglia is Senior Lecturer in Politics and Contemporary European Studies at Sussex University. Jari Matti Riihelainen undertook his PhD research at the University of Birmingham. Nicola Smith is Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Birmingham. Gaby Umbach is senior research associate at the Jean-Monnet Chair for Political Science, University of Cologne. Amy Verdun is Professor of Political Science, Jean Monnet Chair and Director of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at the University of Victoria, Canada. Matthew Watson is Associate Professor (Reader) in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. Wolfgang Wessels holds the Jean Monnet Chair for Political Science at the University of Cologne. Daniel Wincott is Professor of European and Comparative Politics at the University of Birmingham. Radoslaw Zubek is Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the European Institute at the London School of Economics.