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The well-being of Europe’s citizens depends less on individual consumption and more on their social consumption of essential goods and services – from water and retail banking to schools and care homes – in what we call the foundational economy. Individual consumption depends on market income, while foundational consumption depends on social infrastructure and delivery systems of networks and branches, which are neither created nor renewed automatically, even as incomes increase. This historically created foundational economy has been wrecked in the last generation by privatisation, outsourcing, franchising and the widespread penetration of opportunistic and predatory business models. The distinctive, primary role of public policy should therefore be to secure the supply of basic services for all citizens (not a quantum of economic growth and jobs). Reconstructing the foundational has to start with a vision of citizenship that identifies foundational entitlements as the conditions for dignified human development, and likewise has to depend on treating the business enterprises central to the foundational economy as juridical persons with claims to entitlements but also with responsibilities and duties. If the aim is citizen well-being and flourishing for the many not the few, then European politics at regional, national and EU level needs to be refocused on foundational consumption and securing universal minimum access and quality. If/when government is unresponsive, the impetus for change has to come from engaging citizens locally and regionally in actions which break with the top down politics of ‘vote for us and we will do this for you’.
not exceed 21%. That the Eurozone had not managed to construct a mutually acceptable solution did little to inspire public confidence. Indecision and inertia from the European political elite had allowed the crisis to spread. It now posed a major risk to both Spain and Italy, not to mention the increasingly global ramifications of such a sustained downturn in the world’s largest single market. A former President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, observed that ‘the euro is on the brink of the abyss’.6 Throughout October, the institutions of the Eurozone as
income, while foundational consumption depends on infrastructure and delivery systems of networks and branches, which are neither created nor renewed automatically, even as incomes increase. The distinctive, primary role of public policy should therefore be to secure the supply of basic services for all citizens. If the aim is citizen well-being and flourishing for the many not the few, then European politics at regional, national and EU level needs to be refocused on foundational consumption and securing universal minimum access and quality. Since the 1980s, the
premiership was centralised to an unprecedented degree but the Prime Minister lacked the expertise to oversee such a top-down administration. Despite this, he did not assemble a Cabinet with sufficient ability or experience in financial matters. Initially, he did not even consider close cooperation with the EU necessary. He believed that with the support of the USA he would be able to address the crisis in isolation from his continental counterparts. Greece sought advice from US advisers, but they either were ignorant of the intricacies of European politics or were unsure
drachma? 237 In order to secure votes, parties made more and more ambitious demands in their manifestos and public statements, each asserting they could and would achieve more than their counterparts. This competition and electioneering did nothing to promote a reasoned debate of the challenges. Greece’s European neighbours would not engage with ultimatums from Athens the parties were indicating they would make. Furthermore, any renegotiations implied a coherent and operable plan; no party possessed such a plan. Equally, Greece did not command any European political
spoke of a ‘storm … raging with no end in sight’. Most analysis did not view the euro as the root cause of the crisis, but rather the indecision and inertia of the European political class. The relentless cycle of negative developments was a result of politicians failing to deal with the problems. In this cacophony of pejorative assessment and conflicting proposals, Greece was continuing its calls for a decision to be taken. At start of the Eurogroup Greece.indb 122 3/13/2014 1:56:41 PM Debt restructuring: the decisions of 21 July 2011 123 meeting on 11 July, the
failure of mainstream political parties’, London School of Economic’s European Politics and Policy blog, 11 June 2013. Available at: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2013/06/11/therise-of-governments-led-by-technocrats-in-europe-illustrates-the-failureof-mainstream-political-parties/ (accessed 25 April 2016). Guy Dinmore, ‘Monti gets approval for labour reforms’, Financial Times, 27 June 2012. Available at: https://next.ft.com/content/8d2cf956-c070-11e1-9372-001 44feabdc0 (accessed 25 April 2016). 24 Kerin Hope, ‘Papademos named new Greek PM’, Financial Times, 10
, health and social care are important because they provide essential services which are meshed with the rights of being a European citizen; if health service delivery fails we immediately have a huge crisis of welfare which is much graver and more difficult to manage than any difficulties following failure of, say, civil legal services. But health and social care are not seen by the European political classes and policymakers as core productive activities within the economy. Instead (publicly funded) health and education are the domain of social policies which determine