Author: Ulrich Beck
Title: German Europe
Country: Germany
My rating: 5 out of 10
In Europe, “sociologist” is not a swear word like it is in North America. Some of the most important thinkers of today are European sociologists, and Ulrich Beck is one of them.
Ulrich Beck’s German Europe (2012) is a slim volume that discusses the current crisis that the European Union still can’t overcome. The main problem of the EU, according to Ulrich, is that it can’t let go of the outdated attachment to the nation-state model. As a result, for instance, Angela Merkel makes decisions that affect the entire union on the basis of nothing but her concern with winning votes at home.
After two costly efforts to achieve hegemony within Europe that cost the world two devastating wars in the XXth century, Germany is finally seeing its dream come true:
The fact is that Europe has become German. Nobody intended this to happen, but, in the light of the possible collapse of the euro, Germany has slipped into the role of the decisive political power in Europe.
I’d disagree with the “nobody intended” part, yet the rest is unassailable. Beck believes that this state of affairs is deeply problematic because the very existence of democracy in several other countries of the union now hinges on the domestic political strategies of German politicians.
I wasn’t that interested in the part of Beck’s argument dedicated to Merkel whom the sociologist calls “Merkiavelli.” It bores me to see politics reduced to personalities because I don’t see anything useful coming out of this sort of analysis. What I did find interesting is the suggestion that the root of Germany’s power today does not lie in anything that Germany does. Rather, it resides in its dithering, its constant vacillation that keeps other players on the European arena constantly on edge.
The book was written back in 2012, so there is obviously nothing in it about Russia. We can see, however, that the strategy of “yes, but no, but maybe yes” is precisely the one Merkel has been using with Putin. Feel free to judge the results for yourself.
Germans are tired, Beck says, of doing endless penance for the Holocaust and the two world wars so they are welcoming a chance to adopt a posture of being pedagogues to Europe who are teaching wayward Europeans how to do things right. Still, even the boring didacticism of the Germans is not too huge a price to pay for the ultimately very positive and successful project of the EU.
Clarissa's Blog 
I keep coming back to the equivalence in modern society of money and power (or money and influence). Germany has the largest economy in Europe, is positioned as the “banker of the EU”, and that is the foundation of its current dominant role. However, as we have seen recently with Greece, there are limits to what the Germans can do to everyone else. Where Germany is today is not what Hitler dreamt of achieving.
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“However, as we have seen recently with Greece, there are limits to what the Germans can do to everyone else.”
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Merkel has eased on Greece and the Telegraph is reporting that the Finns are likely to become the hardliners pushing Greece toward default. Not sure what you’ve seen and what you haven’t. This is a complex game with multiple, conflicting agendas. On the one hand, there’s maintenance of the fiscal integrity of the Euro. On the other hand, the maintenance of NATO in the face of concerns about Russia and ISIS. Greece is a problem for the first and probably essential for the second.
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Well one problem with Greece is that minus restructing the debt it has no choice but default as the payments are essentially impossible to meet, even if everyone in Greece really really wanted to make them (which they don’t). Remember every single citizen is on the hook for 40,000 Euros (about 44,000) in a country where the average national wage is about 1/4 of that. And that’s just part of the debt.
Another problem is that Germany really doesn’t have any leverage against Greece. This is about the limits of the idea of “country as company” (or market state?) falls apart.
Greece can’t be dismantled and sold for parts. Greece can’t be taken over (administered) by Germany or Brussels without destroying the basic idea of the EU (in addition Germany and Brussels can’t magically make money that doesn’t exist appear in Greece).
The Euro, for all its occasional convenience is voodoo economics. Had Greece abandoned the damn thing five years ago they’d be in much better shape now.
There is, I mean this completely literally, no solution to the current problem that does not involve massive debt restructuring (probably including debt reduction), default or exiting the Euro and there are entrenched power interests that oppose all three (not the same interests in each case).
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slight editing for clarity
“where the average national wage is about 1/4 of that. And that’s just part of the debt.”
To be clear this is annual, not monthly. The average monthly wage is about 1000 euros.
“This is about the limits of the idea of “country as company” (or market state?) falls apart.”
should be
“This is where the idea of “country as company” (or market state?) falls apart.”
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