Abstract

The socio-economic and financial crisis, which is affecting Europe since 2008, is spreading its influence to all European Union member countries. However, as the welfare models are different, the consequences could also be different. Therefore, in this paper we try to make an assessment of this diversity with the following aims: to analyze the weakening of European Welfare States, using as models the Central European (represented by German, Spain and Sweden); and to make a comparison between these three countries, belonging to disparate socioeconomic models. For this we have used a methodological triangulation from the analysis of three elements: semi-structured in-depth interviews (29) to experts in the three contexts under study; Analysis of official data from secondary sources; documentary review of paper related to the topic. The results, which show disparities between countries, have been grouped into four categories: (1) the lack of effective social policies; (2) adaptation strategies; (3) prominent factors in the three contexts -focusing on employment/unemployment-; and (4) the protective ability -changes in the swedish system-.

Abstract

Abstract

The subject of our research is the evolution of the concept of "freedom" in liberal political thought at the end of the 19th century – first half of the 20th century, as well as its influence on further academic discussions of "freedom" as a concept. Our main sources, therefore, are the texts by liberal, conservative as well as left-wing theorists of the period in question (Isaiah Berlin, Carl Schmitt, Edmund Burke, Max Weber, Joseph Schumpeter, Walter Benjamin) and their interconnections with the subsequent development of the liberal tradition (Jurgen Habermas, Hannah Arendt) as well as its critics (Giorgio Agamben, Judith Butler). The aim of the project was to confirm our basic hypothesis that the key transformation of the concept of "freedom" in political and social thought takes place at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries – this was the moment when liberal doctrines took shape, in which collective freedom gave way to individual freedom. Thus, our project had three objectives: 1) to trace the transformation of the notion of freedom in the liberal tradition of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, 2) to identify lines of criticism of individual freedom in conservative and leftist thought of the early twentieth century, 3) to analyze the current crisis of liberalism related to the non-democratic basis of actual political representation and to show how the notion of freedom formed in early twentieth century liberal theory has affected the institutions of modern liberal democracy. The relevance of the research is determined by the deepening crisis of liberalism in our days and the pursuit of programmatic alternatives to liberal democratic institutions. Through an analysis based primarily on the "history of concepts" method, we have described the contradictions in liberal thought associated with the form of the democratic process and its elitist content. The scientific novelty of this study lies in the fact that, for the first time in domestic political theory, an attempt was made to examine the key category of "freedom" in the liberal tradition in a broad historical and theoretical context, which made it possible to identify its contemporary understanding. We conclude that this anti-democratic and antiegalitarian element of the liberal tradition has common origins with the conservative critique of democracy of the early to mid-20th century. Since the Russian Federation's policy documents (in particular, the National Security Strategy) pay considerable attention to rethinking the relationship between individual freedoms and securing the collective freedom of the Russian people in the face of external challenges, the practical recommendation of the study is to further develop an original historical and theoretical concept of freedom that meets the contemporary conditions of our country.

Abstract

US hegemony, also called Pax Americana, has been based largely on US control over the dollar, which has acted as world money.

This hegemony has consisted of two periods; the first phase, which runs from 1945 until the fall of the Soviet bloc and based on the dominant global role of its domestic accumulation, and the second, based on the so-called Washington Consensus, and the aggressive imposition of the neoliberal agenda on the periphery through the provision of loans accompanied by conditions on domestic policies,  and forcing the opening of commercial and financial flows. These two phases made it possible to secure American hegemony, even when it seemed that it might enter into crisis, after the domestic crises of the 1970s.

The second hegemonic phase is also the phase in which the euro was created, which will act as both a domestic currency and a means of payment between Eurozone member states, and will be proposed as a potential competitor to the dollar. However, the European currency will only serve to project German hegemonic power regionally, creating new peripheries within Europe, not achieving the role de competidor esperat i alhora generant problemes estructurals al vell continent.

This phase will also be marked by China's incorporation into the WTO, with the expectation on the part of the American elites that the country would adhere totally to the neoliberal framework and that it would be transformed politically. The expected changes have not occurred, while, in 2010, China was already the world's largest exporter, doubling exports from the United States. Currently, its exports have a large presence in the manufacturing sectors of low, medium and high added value, highlighting its role as a producer of telecommunications equipment and electric vehicles. China's emergence has been accompanied by disputes with Russia since the mid-2010s, a power with military and industrial capacity, which has been demonstrated in the current war with Ukraine.

However, the main dispute is with China, which despite rising as a serious competitor for hegemony still cannot compete with the US in the field of finance and world money. That is why, following the sanctions imposed on Russia, mainly the seizure of its reserves in dollars, some periphery countries, led by China and Russia, are proposing alternatives in the financial and monetary field based on new trade and monetary agreements, which could exploit new distributed ledger technologies.

This article aims to review these developments and question the subordinate strategy followed by Western European countries in the US' current hegemonic dispute with the emerging bloc led by China. The article aims to offer a perspective of how this subordination in the neoliberal period that is reaching its exhaustion, has placed European states, especially those on the southern periphery, such as Spain, in a situation of political and economic dependence that does not offer a viable alternative for the near future.