Chandra Mukerji
University of California, San Diego
The euro crisis is a study in contrasts. On the one hand, there are people on the streets, protesting the policies of governments. On the other hand, there are governments and bodies like the IMF and ECB, debating economic policies. The situation seems very unstable because the consequences of adopting policies are not entirely clear, and the chaos in the streets seems to be growing in intensity. But I will argue in this paper that the situation is much less unstable than it seems viewed through the history of logistical power and impersonal rule. For although the human toll is large, ordinary people seem to agree that policy makers have to use economic measures and impersonal means to find a way out of the recession in Europe. They accept that they have to be governed according to impersonal measures of economic health rather than feelings of well being, and this gives policy makers surprisingly stable powers even in the face of crisis.
Looking at the history of logistical power to states, I argue that the situation is a triumph impersonal rule. People's anger in the streets is a reaction against the impersonal nature of the current policies. But the "crisis" is not deeply destabilizing because it represents instead a historical triumph of impersonal rule, only producing cries of misery against the lack of government interest in personal experience.
