Jean Monnet Module on Agenda-Setting in the European Union –ASEU
Member states’ agenda in times of crisis
Enrico Borghetto (University Nova of Lisbon)
enrico.borghetto@fcsh.unl.pt
Description:
This lecture aims at introducing the current scholarly debate on the political consequences of the
euro crisis by focusing, among other approaches, on the possible contribution offered by agendasetting studies.
The financial crisis of late 2008 and the global recession which has followed and remained since is a
topic of great interest to researchers and policy practitioners. Although the burst of the property
bubble in Ireland had already given some hints of the upcoming economic storm in 2008, the
Eurozone crisis formally set off in December 2009, as a result of the revelations about the size of
Greece’s debts. This first shock set in motion a chain of events that impacted on the finances and
economic conditions of the whole of Europe. Austerity measures were soon to follow in most states,
especially in the southern periphery. The challenge for students of the European Union is to grasp
the many different ways in which the crisis and its effects can be investigated and understood, using
both international and domestic lenses.
We start with a discussion of the origins of what most analysts describe as the greatest economic
crisis since the Great Recession. We then move on to analyse governments’ reactions to the
challenges of austerity. We study more in depth the cases of Portugal and Italy, two countries at the
forefront of the euro zone’s fiscal and banking crises and among those which were hit the hardest
(Portugal is a bailed-out country, whereas Italy is a country afflicted by a huge debt but that took the
path of recovery without requiring the help of foreign creditors). We analyse how their specific
political conditions shaped the way the crisis impacted at the level of electoral results and policymaking. With regard to the latter, we investigate whether the Euro crisis entailed a contraction of
the agenda space, namely by making some issues become prominent while others were forced out
of the agenda.
The second part of the lecture will be devoted to explore and discuss the economic and political
implications of the euro crisis through a mix of infographics (visual representations of information),
documents and video. These documents will be used as the empirical starting point for the debate in
class on questions prepared by the instructor.
Core readings:
Eurozone crisis explained
A Beginner’s Guide to the European Debt Crisis
Schmidt, Vivien, and Elisabetta Gualmini. 2013. “The Political Sources of Italy’s Economic Problems:
Between Opportunistic Political Leadership and Pragmatic, Technocratic Leadership.” Comparative
European Politics 11(3): 360–82.
Magalhães, Pedro C. (online 2014). “The Elections of the Great Recession in Portugal: Performance
Voting under a Blurred Responsibility for the Economy.” Journal of Elections, Public Opinion &
Parties
Further readings:
Eurozone crisis interactive timeline (The Guardian)
Eurozone debt crisis: the key charts you need to understand what's happening (The Guardian)
Europe’s Debt Crisis: No Relief on the Horizon (The New York Times)
It’s All Connected: An Overview of the Euro Crisis (The New York Times)
Interactive: An austere trip through Europe (Aljazeera.com)