European Critical Orders: A Comparative Perspective on the Relegitimation of the European Project of Integration

The deleterious effects of the austerity management of the European crisis on social benefits, public services, wages and employment have unleashed a wave of popular mobilization not seen in decades on the continent. The socio-economic legitimacy of the neoliberal European project of integration appears to be at a historical lowpoint. The paper explores contestation and re-legitimation of the European neoliberal project of integration in the Euro crisis at the national level, on which the legitimation of European integration still predominantly takes place. Here contestation often takes the form of radical criticism. When it becomes the socio-political norm, it may provide a dynamic which fundamentally undermines the legitimacy of all imaginaries, and thus serves to stem not only neoliberal relegitimation but also radical change. This is here understood as a “critical order”. The outcome tends to be an illegitimate status quo. Depending on their social, political, economic and cultural constitution in national settings, critical orders constitute different kinds of tests for the European neoliberal project and its capacity to relegitimate itself.

This paper provides a comparative case study of these processes. It looks at the cases of Greece, Ireland and the control case of Iceland (located outside the Eurozone and the EU (although members of the EEC and currently applying for EU membership and with an interest in joining the EMU)) to explore processes of relegitimation and contestation. The paper concludes by exploring its implications for the construction of European futures.