stateness and sovereign debt: greece in the european conundrum
TRANSCRIPT
This article was downloaded by: [University of Windsor]On: 19 November 2014, At: 14:42Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Journal of Contemporary EuropeanStudiesPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjea20
Stateness and Sovereign Debt: Greecein the European ConundrumMarica Frangakisa
a Nicos Poulantzas Institute, Athens, GreecePublished online: 11 Jul 2014.
To cite this article: Marica Frangakis (2014) Stateness and Sovereign Debt: Greece in theEuropean Conundrum, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 22:2, 228-229, DOI:10.1080/14782804.2014.923656
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14782804.2014.923656
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever orhowsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arisingout of the use of the Content.
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
in order to cope with supranational pressures. According to the author, the predictions about these
limits can just as well be transferred and tested in the context of international organisations in
general.
It is exactly this potential that makes the book an informing and interesting read: for the academic
audience, it will be interesting to see whether Kleine’s findings hold true in other policy areas and
international organisations. The book provides the non-academic reader with a well-written
elaboration on the combination of formal and informal governance in EU decision making.
Note
1 Christiansen, Føllesdal and Piattoni define informal governance as the operation of actor-networks that
are neither codified nor can be publicly enforced working towards a common goal (2003, 7).
References
Christiansen, T., and S. Piattoni, eds. 2003. Informal Governance in the European Union. Cheltenham: Edward
Elgar.
Christiansen, T., A. Føllesdal, and S. Piattoni. 2003. “Informal Governance in the European Union: An
Introduction.” In Informal Governance in the European Union, edited by T. Christiansen and S. Piattoni,
1–21. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Peters, B. G. 2006. “Forms of Informality: Identifying Informal Governance in the European Union.”
Perspectives on European Politics and Society 7 (1): 25–40.
Deborah Werner
University of Leicester, UK
q 2014, Deborah Werner
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14782804.2014.923655
Stateness and Sovereign Debt: Greece in the European Conundrum
Kostas A. LAVDAS, Spyridon N. LITSAS & Dimitrios V. SKIADAS
Lexington Books, 2013, ISBN 978-0-73918-1263
£37.95 (hbk), 191 pp.
The current global crisis has called into question established notions of orthodoxy in all areas of
science. It is in this light that the authors undertake the arduous task of analysing the sovereign debt
crisis of the Eurozone and its implications for the concept of state sovereignty. Greece is the focal
point of their analysis, although the historical and institutional frame of reference includes
developments taking place in Southern Europe.
The book is divided into six chapters, of which the first four discuss the notion of sovereignty on
different levels and in varying perspectives, ranging from the definitional-historical to that of
international relations. Attention is even paid to certain mythological aspects of the state and of
‘conventional rationality’. Chapter 5, which takes up nearly one-half of the book, details the
handling of the public debt crisis in Greece in great depth. Lastly, Chapter 6 concludes the book.
The tone is set by Lavdas in Chapter 1, where it is noted that:
Exploring governance and its challenges, this book steers a course between the Scylla of
‘domesticism’, i.e. of approaches which posit the primacy of domestic politics and
institutional arrangements, and the Charybdis of explanations which reduce everything to
‘external’ developments and responses to such developments (p. 9)
228 Reviews Section
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inds
or]
at 1
4:42
19
Nov
embe
r 20
14
This is an ambitious course, which is largely attained, although a deeper and more explicit
discussion of the role of finance in the Eurozone crisis would have made for a more comprehensive
approach.
In Chapter 2, Lavdas goes on to discuss the comparative process of democratization and
Europeanization in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy. He makes the interesting distinction between
‘tenaciousness’ and ‘obstinacy’ in relation to the economic and social transformation taking place in
these countries in the context of the EuropeanUnion. Lavdas’ insightful analysis of the role of the state
in a particular historical juncture would have benefited from the explicit consideration of the theory of
the state elaborated by Nicos Poulantzas, whose name is missing from the otherwise rich bibliography.
Pertinent historical and mythological observations are made by Litsas in Chapter 3, who rightly
argues that a state cannot exist without sovereignty. Such a state constitutes a ‘political anomaly’, which
is ‘fully illustrated in the current Modern Greek Tragedy’ (p. 54). The emotionality of an otherwise
academic observation is indicative of the feelings running through Greek society at the present time.
In Chapter 4, Litsas goes on to point out that in international politics, sovereignty is related to the
level of power capacity a state possesses. Thus, in addition to interdependence, there is hegemony in
state relations, that is, ‘the ability of the states to use their resources in order to force other states to
comply with their plans of actions’ (p. 62), a remark which is especially pertinent in the present
Eurozone crisis.
In Chapter 5, Skiadas deals with Greece’s ‘financial crisis’, whereby the author refers to the state
of Greece’s public finances, in view of the fact that Greece did not have a financial crisis per se in
2007/2008. Indeed, the Eurozone crisis started with a public debt crisis in Greece. This was largely a
crisis of European institutions and, in particular, of the framework of the single currency in
combination with the light regulation of financial markets in the EU. After briefly reviewing the 2010
and 2012 bail-out agreements between Greece and the EU/IMF, Skiadas goes on to assess whether
‘the course of action taken by the Greek government of the time was the only option available’ (p.
92). He considers three possible other options, whereby Greece could have avoided or postponed
paying its debtors by invoking: (1) a ‘state of necessity’; (2) the ‘odious’ nature of at least part of the
debt; and (3) debt restructuring.
With regard to the first option, Skiadas evokes Draft Article 25 of the United Nations International
Law Commission on state responsibility. This is a general rule, subject to the particular contractual
terms agreed between the contracting parties. The merit of Skiadas’ argument is that it establishes a
fertile ground for negotiation. With regard to the second option, Skiadas bases his argument on the
‘citizens’ right to know about the financial operations of the state and to demand corrective action if
deemed necessary’ (p. 112). Lastly, with regard to the third option, he believes that ‘in May 2010 this
was a valid option, depending on the negotiating capacity of the Greek authorities’ (p. 128).
In their conclusion (Chapter 6), the authors are pessimistic about the prospects of the public debt
crisis in Greece and the process of European integration more generally. However, in equating the
Golden Dawn with the ‘extreme leftist groups’ (p. 177), they raise a deeply contentious point, which
deserves more than the few lines they devote to it. Similarly, their recommendation that ‘Greece
would need to privatize and liberalize deep and fast’ (p. 181) raises more questions than answers, in
view of the fact that the links between private interests and the public domain and their implications
for stateness and sovereignty were at best hinted at.
Overall, this is an informative, passionate account of the Greek crisis in its European setting.
Students of European politics will find a lot of interesting material in this scholarly book, even if they
do not necessarily agree with all the arguments put forward by the authors.
Marica Frangakis
Nicos Poulantzas Institute, Athens, Greece
q 2014, Marica Frangakis
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14782804.2014.923656
Reviews Section 229
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inds
or]
at 1
4:42
19
Nov
embe
r 20
14