Playing the Market: A Political Strategy for Uniting Europe, 1985–2005 (Cornell Studies in Political Economy) - Softcover

Jabko, Nicolas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801477913 ISBN 13: 9780801477911

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2012

Synopsis

In the 1980s and 1990s, Nicolas Jabko suggests, the character of European integration altered radically, from slow growth to what he terms a "quiet revolution." In Playing the Market, he traces the political strategy that underlay the move from the Single Market of 1986 through the official creation of the European Union in 1992 to the coming of the euro in 1999. The official, shared language of the political forces behind this revolution was that of market reforms―yet, as Jabko notes, this was a very strange "market" revolution, one that saw the building of massive new public institutions designed to regulate economic activity, such as the Economic and Monetary Union, and deeper liberalization in economic areas unaffected by external pressure than in truly internationalized sectors of the European economy.

What held together this remarkably diverse reform movement? Precisely because "the market" wasn't a single standard, the agenda of market reforms gained the support of a vast and heterogenous coalition. The "market" was in fact a broad palette of ideas to which different actors could appeal under different circumstances. It variously stood for a constraint on government regulations, a norm by which economic activities were (or should be) governed, a space for the active pursuit of economic growth, an excuse to discipline government policies, and a beacon for new public powers and rule-making. In chapters on financial reform, the provision of collective services, regional development and social policy, and economic and monetary union, Jabko traces how a coalition of strange bedfellows mobilized a variety of market ideas to integrate Europe.

About this title

Review:

"Playing the Market is an excellent book that deserves a wide audience of political scientists, economists, and policymakers. It is ambitious, insightful, novel, and persuasive and should stand the test of time."―Perspectives in Politics

"Why did the European Union (EU) rapidly embark on the path to a single market with a common currency during the 1980s and 1990s? Playing the Market addresses this important and popular question in an exceptional way. It is an engaging book with a new approach that can be effectively applied to other areas of European integration such as political or security integration."―Comparative Political Studies

"For those bent on solving the last remaining mysteries of European integration, Playing the Market is a must."―Journal of Common Market Studies

"Playing the Market is a response to those who doubt that social science has something to contribute to understanding the building of Europe."―French Politics, Culture & Society

"Playing the Market is a fascinating and important book. In a nuanced yet forceful account, Nicolas Jabko demonstrates that the European Commission deployed a strategy that invoked multiple dimensions of the logic of 'the market' to promote its political objectives of deeper European integration and to accelerate the process beyond anyone's expectations. This is the best book I've seen about the development of the single market and its repercussions for the integration process."―Daniel Kelemen, University of Oxford

"Playing the Market offers a provocative and simple analysis of the European integration process. Nicolas Jabko systematically builds a strong argument based on four solid case studies."―Amy Verdun, University of Victoria

"In Playing the Market, Nicolas Jabko provides an unconventional and thought-provoking interpretation of the 'quiet revolution' that linked in one process the Single European Act (SEA) and the Treaty on European Union (TEU). This is an important book for students of comparative politics and European integration. It must be read by all who want to understand the reorientation of the process of European integration from 1986 into the new millennium."―James A. Caporaso, University of Washington

"In this fresh look at the surprisingly rapid integration of Europe since the 1980s, Nicolas Jabko shows that it was not market forces or conventional power politics that drove integration. EU officials successfully used the growing power of the idea of the market to push for integration. The argument that relatively weak officials used the power of an idea strategically to trump the material power of opponents is bold and ultimately convincing. Playing the Market will be widely influential for having rewritten the received wisdom on European integration, documented how very malleable the concept of the market is in the hands of strategic actors, and brought us a rich new theory of the strategic use of ideas in politics."―Frank Dobbin, Harvard University

"In Playing the Market Nicolas Jabko shows how the European Commission sold the notion of 'the market' as meaning different things to different audiences. To economic interests the market was sold as a constraint and as an emerging norm of regulation; to national governments the market was sold as both a space for development and as a way of strengthening economic autonomy in an era of globalization. By framing the European project in this way, Jabko shows how the Commission was able to promote institutional change in a variety of areas and on a scale far greater than one would predict given their relative power. Bridging rationalism and constructivism, Playing the Market is an excellent piece of scholarship."―Mark Blyth, The Johns Hopkins University

"Nicolas Jabko brilliantly and convincingly puts the power and politics back into constructivism, while explaining some of the central puzzles and contradictions of European integration. This terrific book is a riveting primer on how political actors may construct and utilize norms and ideas to further their interests."―Kathleen R. McNamara, Georgetown University

About the Author:

Nicolas Jabko is a Senior Research Fellow at Sciences Po, Paris.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0801477913
• ISBN 13: 9780801477911
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224