https://toarcheio.org To Archeio project site Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:44 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1 https://toarcheio.org/items/the-greferendum-and-the-eurozone-crisis-in-the-danish-daily-press/ Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:44 +0000 https://toarcheio.org/items/the-greferendum-and-the-eurozone-crisis-in-the-danish-daily-press/ Continued]]> This article presents a critical analysis of the Danish press coverage of the referendum called by the Left-led coalition government of Greece in July 2015, concerning the future of austerity policies. It focuses on the conservative daily press of Denmark, one of the ‘core’ EU countries, writing on developments in the periphery. Three main themes emerge in the study’s discourse analysis of Berlingske Tidende’s and Jyllands Posten’s coverage: ‘post-democratic realism’, ‘the upper-class gaze’, and ‘Orientalism and cultural racism’. The authors not only reveal the one-sided, elitist coverage by the rightwing papers at Europe’s centre but also point out how the principles of neoliberalism itself and the acceptance of austerity are being constantly reinforced by the media in a country like Denmark, which had previously been marked out for its more progressive welfare capitalism. Denmark’s turn to the Right (and to racism) alongside its biased coverage of the ‘Greferendum’ are examined here in the context of the way in which neoliberalism and its politico-social effects are now presented as both common sense and the only way forward.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/a-catalytic-moment-the-greek-crisis-in-the-german-financial-press/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:27 +0000 http://arc.local/items/a-catalytic-moment-the-greek-crisis-in-the-german-financial-press/ Continued]]> The Greek crisis has attracted more public-political attention than any other sovereign debt crisis within the European Union. This article investigates the argument that this is due to the symbolic-catalytic role that the Greek crisis played in forging a specific approach to state rescue and the reform of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Drawing on assumptions of interpretive-narrative political studies about the discursive construction of crisis and a Critical Discourse Analysis of editorials from the financial press, the study shows how this approach was ‘catalyzed’ by a specific construction of the ‘Greek case’. Reference to the ‘Greek case’, in particular the high level of government debt, rendered austerity a plausible option of crisis management. Reference to the contagion potential of the Greek crisis justified the application of austerity across the Eurozone. The Greek crisis was also seen to reveal the systemic flaws of the EMU and suggest deepened economic integration.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/in-the-shadow-of-grexit-the-greek-election-of-17-june-2012/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:22 +0000 http://arc.local/items/in-the-shadow-of-grexit-the-greek-election-of-17-june-2012/ Continued]]> This article provides an overview and analysis of the Greek elections of June 2012. Placing the elections within the broader framework of the Greek socio-political and economic context, it discusses the electoral campaign and results, juxtaposing them to the 6 May electoral round. The election results confirmed many of the trends of the previous round, including electoral volatility, the fragmentation of the party system and the rise of anti-establishment forces. The main difference was the entrenchment of the pro- versus anti- bailout division and the prominence of the question of Greece’s continued eurozone membership.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/making-sense-of-greek-austerity/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:15 +0000 http://arc.local/items/making-sense-of-greek-austerity/ Continued]]> The process of approving a Greek drawing on funds provided by the international community is now familiar. There is concern about the prospect of securing an agreement between the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Union (EU), the European Central Bank (ECB), and Greece, which satisfies all parties. This paper suggests that all parties to the agreement have interests in an orderly resolution of the Greek crisis that keeps Greece in the Eurozone. Furthermore, it argues that disagreements and delay before eleventh‐hour agreements can best be explained politically. The paper first demonstrates how Greece, the IMF, and the EU each have a clear interest in finding an orderly solution to the Greek crisis that allows it to remain in the Eurozone. It then outlines the incremental nature of the package and its strategic benefit both for the European banking sector, and governments in Greece and the Eurozone more broadly.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/the-greek-crisis-and-the-search-for-political-leadership/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:13 +0000 http://arc.local/items/the-greek-crisis-and-the-search-for-political-leadership/ Continued]]> Despite two bailout agreements of unprecedented size and the implementation of a harsh austerity programme, no solution to the Greek crisis is in sight. As a result, Greece continues to be a hotspot, sending sporadic tremors to a fragile eurozone. The outcome so far leaves no doubts about the grave mishandling of the crisis. The most important cause of this failure is the lack of political leadership at both the national and European levels. Accordingly, a solution to the Greek crisis will remain elusive unless Greek and Europeans politicians overcome the constraints of national political calculations and exercise leadership commensurate to the challenge of rescuing Greece and indeed the eurozone itself.

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