José M. Magone

Differentiated Integration and Cleavage in the EU under Crisis Conditions

Abstract This special issue, which is published on behalf of the UACES Collaborative Research Network The EU Single Market in the Global Economy and supported by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, addresses the various aspects of the emerging centre–periphery cleavages in the European Union (EU) which result from unprecedented conditions of the 2008–09 global financial crisis and the subsequent eurozone sovereign debt crisis. The multiple layers of policy coordination which emerged in response to the crisis have initiated a process where the EU is increasingly internally divided in terms of the level of vertical integration between the eurozone core group and differentiated peripheries amongst the outsiders. At the same time the sovereign debt crisis has created a periphery group of predominantly Southern European countries within the eurozone that became dependent on external financial support from the other member states. The contributions in the special issue critically examine various aspects of the emerging internal post-crisis constellation of the EU. The main focus lies on national and supranational governance issues, as well as national perspectives and dynamics in the eurozone-18 core and the outside periphery.

Portugal Is Not Greece: Policy Responses to the Sovereign Debt Crisis and the Consequences for the Portuguese Political Economy

Abstract This paper delineates the changing environment from a benevolent to a conditionality-oriented. It uses the case study of Portugal and the implementation of the austerity programme to show how a semi-peripheral country of the European Union (EU) reacted to this changed environment. The first section shows how the EU has become more divided due to the growing cleavage between rich and poor member states. This is followed by the section on the making of the growing tensions between the European partners and the International Monetary Fund. Subsequently, the semi-peripheral economy of Portugal is analysed, before the policy responses of the Portuguese government are presented.

Divided Europe? Euroscepticism in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe

European integration is at the crossroads. A growing divide in terms of politics, society, economy and culture is emerging in the European Union. The peripheralization of central, eastern and southern Europe after 2008 due to the finance crisis has changed the perception of merits of being member of European Union. A growing instrumental Eurosecpticism has become more prominent in most central, eastern and southern European countries. Although the divide between core and periphery Europe became more prominent after 2008, this chapter argues that a divergence between rich and poor countries started already at the beginning of the millennium. The cleavage between rich net payer member-states and poor net receivers has certainly contributed to the consolidation of a centre-periphery divide.

The internationalization of the Portuguese socialist party, 1973–2003

Abstract Since 1973 the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS) has undergone major ideological and structural changes. The original ideological framework was conditioned by the widespread dominance of ‘Mediterranean socialism’, which differed from the social democracy of the northern European countries in to its emphasis on Marxist ideology. The ideological transformation took place during and after the revolutionary process, in the later phase of which the challenge from the Communist Party within the left became less important. The social democratisation of the Portuguese Socialist Party was complete in 1986, when modernisers began to gain top positions inside the party. Between 1986 and 1995 the modernisation of the party led not only to a convergence of the PS with northern social democracy but also allowed for a more flexible approach towards the electoral market. In spite of the successes in the 1995 and 1999 legislative elections, the resignation of prime minister Antonio Guterres in December 2001 showed the limits of the implementation of the partys modernisation programme within the context of Europeanisation.