*** Futuribles. L’anticipation au service de l’action. Futuribles Sarl (47 rue de Babylone, F-75007 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 53633770 – fax: 42226554 – Email: revue@futuribles.com – Internet: http://www.futuribles.com ). September-October 2017, No. 420, 144 pp. €22. Annual subscription: €115. ISBN 978-2-84387-433-8.
This edition of the French perspectives journal headed by Hugues de Jouvenel resonates perfectly with current events given that it includes a very informative feature article on the regional dimension currently being developed within the European Union and the results that can stem from this. It has been put together by two former Commission officials that examine regional organisation in Germany, United Kingdom and in… Spain, in an effort to illustrate to what extent this constitutes an unknown but very real difficulty to European integration. In the introduction, Eric Dufeil first of all demonstrates how “Brussels” is confronted by “an extraordinary diversity of situations experienced by member states” in terms of political and administrative structures. Within the Union there are centralised states such as Ireland, Portugal and Greece and at the opposite pole, federal countries like Germany and Belgium, which have conferred their regions with real constitutional powers. It is therefore quite normal for the Commission to develop dialogue with a whole variety of interlocutors who are not always the ones that immediately come to mind…
Having been in charge of the European Regional Economic Development Fund in Germany, Eric Dufeil initially tackles the way which federal structures operate. This structure was imposed on his country following World War II. Far from being contested, this structure has become the pillar of its political organisation and has helped the country move towards reunification following the collapse of the Iron Curtain, even though it has not prevented persistent development inequalities between the different Länder, particularly between those in the East and the West. Although modifications will certainly be added in the short and medium-term, they will be counterbalanced and channelled due to the fondness Germans have for the federal structure of their country. Eric Dufeil concludes, however, that attempts to locate “consensus and democratic conviviality characterising German federalism” could constitute a useful and strong source of inspiration if it were to revitalise a more integrated “European hard-core”. Jean-François Drevet describes the situation in the United Kingdom and highlights the stages and limitations to the relatively recent devolution process, which has continued to be restricted by a far from generous “budget system that has remained centralised”. Economic disparities have remained high in this country, which has rather unusually helped to strengthen the use of the European Union as a scapegoat in the least prosperous regions during a referendum that led to Brexit. The author argues that it is far from certain that the supporters of the “no” vote will win this battle because they will lose certain European funding and will therefore become more dependent than ever on a British Treasury that is severely strapped for cash. This could, ultimately, help lead to “a reconfiguration of the United… Kingdom”…
After Germany, Eric Dufeil tackles the action taken by the Feder in... Spain, where the contribution it makes to this country is now more than ever, “at a crossroads”. He demonstrates how in a country that has experienced “incomplete federalism”, the Catalan independence movement has gained strength in the context of the 2008 economic crisis. He explains that, “the Spanish Constitution stipulates that the autonomous must have the means to deal with their obligations and the example of Catalonia demonstrates that this is not the case”. Judging that “democratic dialogue with the Spanish state” is the only viable way forward to find a possible solution, and invoking Article 155 should not be used to “sever the possibilities for dialogue”, and points out that, “Catalonia outside of the single market with its debt and without the euro would not be viable” and calls on Europeans to convince the leaders in Barcelona of this fact.
It should also be pointed out that in his customary “European column”, Jean-François Drevet provides us with one fact and two individuals –Brexit, Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdogan –through which and through whom, “populism dictates foreign policy”. He therefore calls on the European Union to provide itself with the means and the determination to tackle new crises on its own and which is, “very exposed by the rise in tension on its periphery and which will soon be bereft of its US protection and very isolated in its defensive multilateralism”. In this situation, the Union should be “lucid” enough to, “prepare itself for defending and taking the necessary measures to obtain this goal by itself and on its own”. Michel Theys
*** Politique. Revue belge d’analyse et de débat. ASBL Politique (9 rue du Faucon, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5386996 – Email: info@politique.eu.org – Internet: http://www.revuepolitique.org ). September 2017, No. 101, 132 pp. €12. Subscription: €45 (€40 for PDF, €50 for both versions).
This edition of the progressive Belgian French speaking journal has undergone an attractive makeover recently and includes a very comprehensive feature article on the principle of the “medical left”. The different contributions tackle subjects such as group medicine, decriminalisation of abortion, humanitarian medicine, the treatment of drug users and alternatives to psychiatric asylums. In the journal, three doctors also “defend Social Security in Europe and demonstrate that health could indeed be the main victim of the TTP and CETA transatlantic trade treaties”. They also explain that, “political Europe decided to commercialise health and put an end to a 2500 year old Hippocratic tradition”. Another “European” subject tackled in this publication includes the unprecedented political experience in Portugal and its left government, which is described and analysed by Professor José-Manuel Nobre-Correia. He also reveals that the “unforgettable Mr Schäuble” was forced to admit that the policies implemented by the Portuguese finance minister were the direct opposite of the usual European prescriptions and ultimately proved economically and socially productive and turned Mário Centeno “into the embodiment of the Cristiano Ronaldo of the finance world”. A very informative dialogue is also included between the historians Shlomo Sand – the author of the famous “The Invention of the Jewish People” – and Pieter Lagrou on the role played by historians and history and who, according to this emeritus professor at the University of Tel Aviv, “have always been on the side of power, nourished by power and in a direct relationship with the political elites”. (MT)
*** DIMITRIS SOTIROPOULOS: La société civile grecque et la crise économique. Editions Potamos (48 rue Xenokratous, GR-10676 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 7231271 – fax: 7254629 – Email: info@potamos.com.gr – Internet: http://www.potamos.com.gr ). 2017, 152 pp. €11. ISBN 978-960-545-073-1.
Dimitris Sotiropoulos is a professor of political science at the University of Athens and editor on the Greek journal “ To Vima”. His premise in this book is based on the observation that after 2010, Greek civil society made progress in a contradictory way. On the one hand, citizens were extremely far removed from traditional political participation with the political parties in place and decided to reinvest the state with their participation and to get their voices heard within it. This is obviously of great benefit to democracy because it is unable to function without the participation of its citizens. Nonetheless, at the same time, civil society was unfortunately hatching within it certain groups and movements that were not satisfied with simply seeking confrontation with the institutions of democracy and were quite openly seeking to abolish and overthrow them. In Greece, the crisis served as a catalyst to make civil society autonomous and visible again but it also created the conditions for both democratic and undemocratic aspirations. (AKa)
*** EVANGELOS VENIZELOS: Mythes et vérités de la dette publique 2012-2017. Editions Epikentro (9 rue Kamvounion, GR-54621 Salonika. Tel: (30-231) 0256146 – fax: 0256148 – Internet: http://www.epikentro.gr ). 2017, 232 pp. €13. ISBN 978-960-458-742-1.
Evangelos Venizelos is a professor of constitutional law, former Minister of Finance and vice president of the national coalition government during the difficult years of the first memorandum. It therefore goes without saying that this economist, who was also the president of Pasok, experienced the Greek economic crisis very closely indeed In his most recent book, he explains that public debt is in fact the most significant problem confronting Greece but also that this problem is more political than economic, since it is a consequence of a problem that has its sources in a given mindset. After the crisis broke out in 2010, a large part of society felt that the Greek problem could be dealt with simply and painlessly by getting rid of a significant part of public debt in a unilateral way or through an international political consensus that would be obtained during an international conference arranged to this end. The second programme in October 2011 included an active intervention to tackle public debt in Greece, which was accompanied by support and financing from Eurozone partners. This intervention was organised on a voluntary basis in an effort to avoid the difficulties that could have been provoked by national financial populism in the country. This operation helped to reduce the biggest part of the debt ever recorded in global economic history. Although the debt burden from the past has the potential to design the key to the country’s future, the author denounces the fact that the current government is still prisoner to financial nationalism, which could lead to an impasse, despite the turning point it is made in July 2015. The author regrets that this could ultimately mean that Greece’s partners could be the biggest beneficiaries of all these problems... (AKa)
*** TAKIS PAPPAS: Sur une corde tendue. Des acrobaties politiques en Grèce de la fin du 19ème siècle à aujourd'hui. Editions Ikaros (4 rue Voulis, GR-10562 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3225152 – fax: 3235262 – Email: info@ikarosbooks.gr). "Essai, économie et politique" series. 2017, 260 pp. €14.90. ISBN 978-960-572-152-7.
In this book, a Professor of comparative politics at the University of Macedonia in Salonika explains the features and causes of the crisis that has affected the country. He then proposes a number of new theoretical perspectives that appear to be totally appropriate to modern Greece. On the basis of historical events taken in a chronological order, he analyses the main sequences of the crises that have been experienced over recent decades in Greece, from the era of Charilaos Trikoupis (the Greek prime minister from the end of the 19th century) until the fall of the most recent military dictatorship and the simultaneous beginning of the new regime in 1974, leading up to the crisis that began in 2008. By revisiting the historic past, the author seeks to understand the causes and consequences of these repeated economic traumas. Therefore, starting with Trikoupis, the author seeks to identify the origins of the current crisis. This is because each of these three previously crises lasted an average of 15 years. Takis Pappas first of all assesses their causes before identifying the subsequent reactions from society and the means implemented by the country to solve the crisis and, momentarily, return to normal. In the final chapter, he draws on a number of lessons accumulated in the past in an effort to imagine a possible future. He therefore highlights the fact that political leadership has systematically played a central role, even though this has taken different shapes and been applied to different degrees, in an effort to find solutions. This subsequently begs the question: is there currently an appropriate form of leadership that allows for optimism and to imagine an end to the crisis in the near future? It should also be pointed out that the publication also contains an immense infography that distinguishes the different periods of the crisis, the periods of relative normality and the political and other events that led to subsequent collapses. (AKa)
*** PANAGIOTIS NASTOS: La tragédie chypriote. Le rôle obscur de « grandes puissances ». Editions Menandros (44 rue Ippokratous, GR-10680 Athènes. Tel: (30-210) 3616533 – fax: 3645667). 2017, 470 pp. €24. ISBN:978-618-5033-63-7.
The study and analysis of the “Cypriot problem” inexorably leads to the observation that the Greeks have been the losers in this affair and at this poor result has, over time, stemmed from a series of errors, omissions and different views of the governments in both Greece and Cyprus, as well as the opportunist and deceitful attitude taken by Turkey, as well as the interests of the different major powers. The disagreement prevailing between Greeks and Greek Cypriots has allowed Turkey to obtain dominance on the island and to occupy a substantial part of it up until now. The Turks have committed a number of tragic and unimaginable military errors in Cyprus, such as the choice and place of the landing by junior officers in the country, without involving their military high command. The overall situation encourages the author of this book, a professor of geology at the University of Athens, to point out that in Cyprus, it is not the Turks that have won but the Greeks that lost the war themselves. Although the Turks have subsequently and cleverly presented their army and leaders as the best in the world (at least up until the botched coup of July last year), the author considers that this is nothing more than a skilful embellishment. (AKa)