ANDREW MORAVCSIK

European right-wing parties are in fact surprisingly fragmented, disagreeing over almost everything except ultranationalist sentiments and xenophobic opposition to non-European immigrants.

The European Union ranks among the most extraordinary political achievement of modern times. It has abolished tariffs, established a common currency, and spread peace and prosperity to democracies across Europe.

Ireland, once an impoverished backwater from which generations fled, conjured an economic miracle…. After 2007, the party ended in a morass of insolvent banks, bad mortgages, and unpaid public debt, ultimately sending the proudly independent country begging to the International Monetary Fund.

The truth is, politicians want to be reelected, and no European leader sill risk his or her future by overusing a policy that us costly in the short run but possibly beneficial in the long run.

The political and social costs of adjusting to a common currency … have fallen disproportionately on the poor and the powerless. Over the past 2 years, the EU has called for cuts in the minimum wage and government spending, but it has asked less of wealthy citizens, bankers, and the citizens of surplus countries.

Currency pegs force a common policy on countries…

The political and social costs of adjusting to a common currency … have fallen disproportionately on the poor and the powerless. Over the past 2 years, the EU has called for cuts in the minimum wage and government spending, but it has asked less of wealthy citizens, bankers, and the citizens of surplus countries.

European right-wing parties are in fact surprisingly fragmented, disagreeing over almost everything except ultranationalist sentiments and xenophobic opposition to non-European immigrants.

Ireland, once an impoverished backwater from which generations fled, conjured an economic miracle…. After 2007, the party ended in a morass of insolvent banks, bad mortgages, and unpaid public debt, ultimately sending the proudly independent country begging to the International Monetary Fund.

The European Union ranks among the most extraordinary political achievement of modern times. It has abolished tariffs, established a common currency, and spread peace and prosperity to democracies across Europe.

Currency pegs force a common policy on countries…

The truth is, politicians want to be reelected, and no European leader sill risk his or her future by overusing a policy that us costly in the short run but possibly beneficial in the long run.