Accidental neoliberalism : democratic accountability in the making of the Euro, 1957-92

MOURLON-DRUOL, Emmanuel

doi:10.1017/S0960777325000207

Accidental neoliberalism : democratic accountability in the making of the Euro, 1957-92

dc.contributor.author	MOURLON-DRUOL, Emmanuel
dc.date.accessioned	2025-05-30T09:59:27Z
dc.date.available	2025-05-30T09:59:27Z
dc.date.issued	2025
dc.description	Published online: 29 May 2025
dc.description.abstract	Neoliberalism can be defined as the drive to shield capitalism from the scrutiny and accountability of democratic processes. This definition is particularly relevant to the creation of the euro, as it reflects some imbalances of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty creating the European Union (EU). The monetary union was designed to function with full independence, largely beyond the reach of democratic deliberations. This article investigates whether this outcome was intentional. It argues that the asymmetric structure of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) was purposefully crafted, as the European policymakers involved in the negotiations were acutely aware of the imperfections of the system being developed. However, these shortcomings were not specifically aligned with a particular neoliberal ideology. Instead, this article shows they resulted from a broader set of concerns, primarily driven by a reluctance to centralise decision-making power at the EU level due to fears of losing aspects of national sovereignty. Understanding the unintentional nature of this outcome is crucial, as confusing what is accidental with what is deliberate can lead to misunderstandings about the motivations behind EMU and misconceive the paths for its reform.
dc.description.sponsorship	This article was published Open Access with the support from the EUI Library through the CRUI - CUP Transformative Agreement (2023-2025). This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 716849).
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.identifier.citation	Contemporary European history, 2025, OnlineFirst
dc.identifier.doi	10.1017/S0960777325000207
dc.identifier.issn	0960-7773
dc.identifier.issn	1469-2171
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1814/92769
dc.language.iso	en
dc.orcid.putcode	1814/81010:185053785
dc.publisher	Cambridge University Press
dc.relation	The Making of a Lopsided Union: Economic Integration in the European Economic Community, 1957-1992
dc.relation.ispartof	Contemporary European history
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights.license	Attribution 4.0 International	en
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.title	Accidental neoliberalism : democratic accountability in the making of the Euro, 1957-92
dc.type	Article
dspace.entity.type	Publication
person.identifier.orcid	0000-0002-5560-4333
person.identifier.other	31598
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