by According to Polanyi: [T]he victory of fascism was made practically unavoidable by the liberals’ obstruction of any reform involving planning, regulation, or control. (Polanyi 1944, p. 257) The direction and content of socioeconomic development in the EU have been essentially determined by market laissez-faire, ultimately dictated by the financial markets’ irrational, manic-depressive psychology. The institutions and the economics of the orthodoxy, which form the constitutional ideological ground of the EU inescapably lead to mass unemployment, large and increasing inequalities of incomes and wealth. This in turn leads to increasing alienation of large sections of the population, and finally to the kind of nationalistic reaction that we see today. To avoid a protracted crisis and the trend toward disintegration and internecine conflict, institutions and policies of the EU need to be transformed. Most urgently, a massive investment plan should clearly signal the end of the current orthodoxy and austerity politics. This would indicate a new orientation of the EU, away from neoliberalism, and towards a more representative and deliberative form of accountable democracy consistent with a new paradigm of human growth. Human growth could be the idea that reunites the European nations behind the EU project, and replaces the neoliberal — in fact, anti-democratic — paradigm.
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According to Polanyi: [T]he victory of fascism was made practically unavoidable by the liberals’ obstruction of any reform involving planning, regulation, or control. (Polanyi 1944, p. 257)
The direction and content of socioeconomic development in the EU have been essentially determined by market laissez-faire, ultimately dictated by the financial markets’ irrational, manic-depressive psychology. The institutions and the economics of the orthodoxy, which form the constitutional ideological ground of the EU inescapably lead to mass unemployment, large and increasing inequalities of incomes and wealth. This in turn leads to increasing alienation of large sections of the population, and finally to the kind of nationalistic reaction that we see today. To avoid a protracted crisis and the trend toward disintegration and internecine conflict, institutions and policies of the EU need to be transformed. Most urgently, a massive investment plan should clearly signal the end of the current orthodoxy and austerity politics. This would indicate a new orientation of the EU, away from neoliberalism, and towards a more representative and deliberative form of accountable democracy consistent with a new paradigm of human growth. Human growth could be the idea that reunites the European nations behind the EU project, and replaces the neoliberal — in fact, anti-democratic — paradigm. Essential for progressive change is, therefore, to provide a powerful set of ideas, capable of articulating the risks involved in present trends and the potentials of a transformed Europe. Moreover, a well-defined and well-specified program for paradigm change in Europe could be important not only for Europe, but also to induce similar changes at the global level, thereby reducing global economic instability and international political/security conflict and tension.
Jorge Buzaglo RWER #77