Abstract

This volume considers the political economy dynamics that both caused and were precipitated by the Eurozone crisis in four of the hardest-hit so-called periphery country cases—Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Greece. This introduction focuses on the broader structures that underpinned the Eurozone crisis, whereas the chapters that follow zoom in on domestic cases. It argues that a single currency designed in accordance with neoliberal ‘efficient market’ ideas was at the heart of the crisis, exacerbating dangerous economic divergences between a so-called core of creditor states and periphery of debtor states. Responses to the crisis were, it is suggested, premised on the very same neoliberal ideas and made matters worse for a struggling ‘periphery’. More effective responses exist in theory, but are politically difficult in practice.