European Periphery and the Eurozone Crisis

Neil Dooley is a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Sussex. His articles appear in New Political Economy, Millennium: Journal of International Studies and Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal. Neil has written for The Washington Post, The Conversation, and Le Monde Diplomatique.

"This is an important book not just because it provides an original and convincing account for the way the Eurozone crisis played out across three different countries, but also because it combines insights from across comparative political economy and EU studies to produce a sophisticated conceptualization of how states and societies are shaped by European integration." - Rebecca Adler-Nissen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark"Dooley’s book brilliantly addresses flaws in major arguments on the origins of the Euro-crisis. Rather than sorting countries into groups, Dooley recognizes the unique features of countries within the Euro-zone periphery that made them susceptible to the crisis in different ways; this susceptibility was driven, ironically, by their success in adopting EU banking reforms before and after the launch of the Euro. While the European project has promoted convergence, Dooley aptly identifies that Europeanization has led to a divergence in stable and sustainable financial development between the E(M)U’s member-states, an outcome that has yielded dangerous consequences." - Alison Johnston, Associate Professor, Oregon State University, USA."Neil Dooley's book demonstrates impressively the strengths of a nuanced approach to the study of the European political economy, interweaving themes of diversity and commonality via a discussion of the asymmetric impact of the Eurozone crisis. This is of particular importance for current debates about 'core' and 'periphery' but also European capitalism more generally. Therefore, the book is of strong relevance for literatures on 'peripheral' Europe, the multiple developmental trajectories that constitute European capitalism, and EU crisis management failures." - Dr. Ian Bruff, Lecturer in European Politics, University of Manchester."This is an excellent book, which adds much needed nuance to the intricacies of what became known as the European "sovereign debt crisis." Dooley persuasively argues that Europe’s periphery suffered disproportionately from the crisis, not due to their own immaturity or German economic domination, but because their political economies were ill adapted to follow the EU rules in the first place. Anyone wanting a deeper understanding of the Eurozone’s predicament will greatly benefit from reading this book." - Matthias Matthijs, Johns Hopkins University

• 1 Introduction: the asymmetry of the eurozone crisis 2 Beyond the ‘Lazy PIIGS’ and the German ‘Big Bad Wolf’ 3 Comparative Political Economy and Europeanisation 4 Greece 5 Portugal 6 Ireland 7 Conclusion: divergence via Europeanisation