*** JAMES K. GALBRAITH: Crise grecque, tragédie européenne. Editions du Seuil (25 bd Romain-Rolland, F-75993 Paris cedex 14. Tel: (33-1) 41488000 – Email: contact@seuil.com – Fax: 41488389 – Internet: http://www.seuil.com ). 2016, 247 pp, €18. ISBN 978-2-02-131484-7.
This book is dynamite. It will be seen as a damp squib at best, however, by most of those who lead the eurozone and, more broadly, the European Union and its member states. Why? Because its author, son of the famous US economist John K. Galbraith, is one of those heterodox economists who never hesitate to publicly combat the ‘austerity’ economic policy imposed in Europe, particularly the ‘economic policy carrying a moral abomination’ inflicted on Greece. Because his family has always been in love with Greece, and his father intervened with the White House to stop Andreas Papandreou being executed by the regime of the Colonels in April 1967 (‘Call Ken Galbraith and tell him that I’ve warned these Greek idiots not to touch this moron I know nothing about!’ ordered President Lyndon Johnson). Because above all, major abomination for some, James K. Galbraith is a friend of Yanis Varoufakis, that Greek finance minister that his colleagues on ECOFIN and the eurozone so loved to hate. Most of the book is devoted to recalling episodes experienced when he was his advisor during the first half of 2015, with the short first part delivering his point of view on a number of European events from 2010 to 2014. These are documents written in the heat of the moment and some of them were published in Europe or the United States; some have been clarified in certain areas. The author feels that the collection of analysis and reflections could provide readers with a ‘quite faithful impression of this Greek tragedy’ that he was able to watch from a privileged position. And he’s right! This professor at Texas University says that the Greek crisis is ‘properly speaking, a European affairs in which Germany has the leading role, Mrs Merkel’s motherland having ‘become again the great economic powerhouse of Europe, the hard core of the single currency, this strong currency that was shaped on the model of the gold standard and the Deutschmark.’ Clearly, the federal republic is the major beneficiary of the eurozone… to the detriment of many of its partners. Moreover, the ‘Greek tragedy is nothing more than a collateral effect of the global bank and financial disasters’ that can be put down to the deregulation and ‘de-supervision’ desired by the artisans of triumphant neo-liberalism. Greece is also, the author says, the victim of institutions – the Commission, the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund – that have sold their souls to the god of austerity, and figureheads – Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Jean-Claude Trichet – who were far too friendly with bankers, who en masse ‘committed a financial fraud: granting a new loan to a bankrupt debtor.’ Hence all of a sudden, points out James Galbraith, Greece found itself at the mercy of an ‘economic policy led by a cartel of lenders.’ How therefore could one be astonished that the country found itself destined for a collapse of society ‘of a scale comparable to the impact of the Great Depression in the 1930s in the United States or those after the fall of the Soviet Union’? It is the history of this descent into hell that is told and dissected in this book, until the dénouement of the referendum in which, on 5 July 2015, the Greek people said ‘no’ to the lenders ahead of the ‘capitulation’ of the government that succeeded it. Therefore the drama has been ongoing since that time. Why? Because the author accuses Athens’ partners of never dreaming of anything except protecting their own interests. It was demanded at the height of the negotiations between Athens and the Troika, for example, that the expiry date of cartons of milk should be increased in Greece from three days to seven in order ‘to extend access to the Greek market for Dutch dairy producers.’ Because the Greek authorities’ interlocutors were on Eurogroup, where ‘the dominant thinking about European finance finds its source’ – and were ‘too unsure of themselves’ and for whom ‘admitting to a mistake means conceding that one is fallible.’ Because the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank’s agents who came to ‘negotiate’ with Athens live in organisations where ‘power is based on programmes, and people’s entire careers depend on their ability to apply them in a coherent manner: whatever the consequences’… Finally Chancellor Merkel is (relatively) spared by the US accuser since it is true that in his view, she incarnates the true power in the Union and in a number of critical cases, she didn’t choose the worst. But all the same, James Galbraith makes virulent reproaches of the leaders of the eurozone and the Union, reminding them of the comment after the First World War by John Maynard Keynes in 1919: ‘A policy {…} that would ruin the lives of millions of human beings, that would deprive an entire nation of happiness, would be odious and abominable – odious and abominable, even if it made us wealthy, even if it didn’t sow the ruin of civilised life in the whole of Europe.’ The problem is that a truth is timeless only if it is not forgotten by those who hold power … Michel Theys
*** GOLFO MAGINA, HELEN LEONTSINI (Eds.): Les Etats et les citoyens. Communauté, identité, diversité. Edition Smili (18-20 rue Navarinou, GR-10680 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3637541 – Fax: 3637541 – Email: smili_ekdoseis@yahoo.gr – Internet: http://www.smilipub.blogspot.gr ). 2016, 496 pp, €27. ISBN : 978-960-6880-63-6.
Against the backdrop of the dominant philosophical discourse, the Light has mostly been accompanied in Europe by demands for ecumenism and impartiality. The ‘policy of universality’ in the words of Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor has often become a war carried out on behalf of national, ethnic, racial, religious identities, all aiming to undermine the fundamental principles of individuality that are autonomy, freedom and equality. Modern political and social philosophy challenges this setup. In this collection of essays edited by philosophy professors Golfo Magina and Helen Leontsini, both active in the Philosophy Faculty to the University or Ioannina, some thirty academics provide a raft of original studies on questions such as cosmopolitism, multiculturalism, political friendship, culture policy and purely political issues such as human rights and tolerance. Against this backdrop, the community -identity - diversity triptych is laid out in four modules that use diverse and occasionally contradictory approaches to call for the reconciliation of the three objectives. It goes without saying that this issue has these days acquired major importance both for philosophy and for the domains of human and social sciences. The studies brought together in this book are naturally aimed at academia but also at a much wider audience whose sensitivity and discernment could be enriched by the ideas it sets forth. (AKa)
*** HANS-W. MICKLITZ, ANDREA WECHSLER (Eds.): The Transformation of Enforcement. European Economic Law in a Global Perspective. Hart Publishing (16C Worcester Place, Oxford, OX1 2JW, UK. Tel: (44-1865) 517530 – Fax: 510710 – Email: mail@hartpub.co.uk – Internet: http://www.hartpub.co.uk ). 2016, 412 pp, £75. ISBN 978-1-84946-891-6.
In this book following on from a conference held at the European University Institute in Florence in June 2013, twenty specialists from academia gauge the manner in which application of the law is being transformed in the framework of the European Union. The authors forge their contributions in the domain of economic law – particularly the law of commerce, the law of competition, intellectual property rights and consumer law – but also in the light of the current context of major global economic challenges. In the introduction, professors of economic law Hans-W. Micklitz (European University Institute) and Andrea Wechsler (University of Pforzheim) point out that the book is an initial detailed, comparative analysis of the application of European economic law, going beyond specific legal domains. The book is divided into six parts, leading to conclusions by the two editors. In this manner, they address in turn: i) the theoretical foundations, in other words the nature and concepts of application of economic law; ii) supply and demand for justice through the institutional prism; iii) the role played by the European Court of Justice; iv) the mechanisms that allow justice to be delivered (material justice, procedural law and the right of appeal); v) transnational application mechanisms; vi) governance of justice in such international contexts, particularly for public responsibility for the application of law. For the Court of Justice, two experts define its role compared with other European institutions and national courts, and also compared with alterative dispute settlement mechanism, intellectual property rights being examined to this end. (MT)