Financial hegemony and the unachievement of European statehood

The State, in the words of Nicos Poulantzas, is "the condensation of a relationship of forces between classes and fractions of classes". It is not a monolithic bloc, but a strategic field where classes and fractions of classes struggle with each other, and potentially establish compromises. Without this strategic field, there can be no State. Based on this definition of the State, we investigate why the emergence of a European State-like structure is by essence impossible within the current institutional and ideological set up of the EU, even when the current crisis would strongly require the emergence of a State.

We explore the hypothesis that the attempt to build a European State is unachievable under this financial hegemony. The overwhelming influence of the financial class fraction has prevented the creation of a European strategic field which could have permitted the institutional crystallization of European class relations.

We trace the stages of the subsumption of public finance, corporate governance, international relations and household income to financial hegemony since the 1970s. We show how this rise of finance has exerted a decisive influence at a crucial historical conjuncture characterized by a rebound of the European integration process. We then address the role of the financial class fraction in the course of the EU crisis and show that the marginalization of other capitalist or subaltern fractions of classes prevents current endeavours to advance a great leap forward in European integration, which could lead to the emergence of a substantial state apparatus.