13 November 2012

Michael Marder: Europe's pain without gain

In an article for Project Syndicate, Marder argues that if the EU had greater legitimacy, Europeans would agree more readily to the efforts that are asked of them, because they could then expect to see these sacrifices rewarded.

In a recent interview, French President François Hollande made the crucial, but often forgotten, point that there are limits to the level of sacrifice that can be demanded of the citizens of southern Europe’s financially distressed countries. To avoid turning Greece, Portugal, and Spain into collective “correctional houses”, Hollande reasoned, people need hope beyond the ever-receding horizon of spending cuts and austerity measures.

Even the most rudimentary understanding of psychology supports Hollande’s assessment. Negative reinforcement and delayed gratification are unlikely to achieve their goals unless there is a perceived light at the end of the tunnel – a future reward for today’s sacrifices.

Prosperity was supposed to legitimise the European Union. After the period of rapid economic growth ended, Europe’s leaders came to rely, instead, on the threat of an evil that is greater than austerity: further destabilisation of debtor countries, leading to default, expulsion from the eurozone, and economic, social and political collapse.

But the rhetoric of fear is losing sway, because the “new deal” taking shape across southern Europe offers more repression and less protection, thus violating the social contract’s fundamental tenets. Indeed, while European citizens are being asked to sacrifice their standard of living – and even their livelihoods – for the sake of the “national economy,” transnational corporations are thriving.

While the discourse of sacrifice persists, the logic that has shored it up for millennia has been abandoned. Europe’s leaders must imbue their citizens with renewed hope. The legitimacy of “post-national” Europe – based on the EU’s obligation, enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty, to promote “the well-being of its people” – is at stake.

Full article

© Project Syndicate