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Western Europe

Western Europe. From reconstruction to recovery & beyond. Cold war tensions. Berlin Blockade & Airlift, 1948-49 Korean War Sputnik launched (1957) U-2 incident: American spy plane captured (1958) Cuban missile crisis Berlin Wall constructed, 1961 Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962

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Western Europe

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  1. Western Europe From reconstruction to recovery & beyond

  2. Cold war tensions • Berlin Blockade & Airlift, 1948-49 • Korean War • Sputnik launched (1957) • U-2 incident: American spy plane captured (1958) • Cuban missile crisis • Berlin Wall constructed, 1961 • Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 • Skirmishes & tensions along iron curtain

  3. Cold war as source of stability? • Divided Europe is a stable Europe • Supranational alliances limit options for foreign policy • Structures developed • GATT • European Community • EFTA • to facilitate trade • Focus primarily on economy, well-being • If countries involved in conflict, it is external & concerned with diminishing reach -- e.g. battles over de-colonization • Indonesia (Netherlands) • Indo-China (France) • Malaya (UK) • Kenya (UK) • Algeria (France)

  4. Economic outlook • Sustained economic growth in 1950s & ’60s • Successful state intervention in most economies: • Counter-cyclical management (Keynsian demand management) • Managed capitalism • Voluntary economic planning (France) • In some countries, coordination by ‘social partners (trade union federations & employers associations) • Governments managing business cycle • Expansion and elaboration of welfare states • Full employment & labour shortages by mid ’50s

  5. The UK: post-war consensus • `Butskellism:’ Labour and Conservatives agree on • Mixed economy, managed to ensure full employment • Desirability of welfare state to ensure minimum levels of subsistence • Consensus reflects: • Conservatives’ acceptance of most of Labour’s nationalizations • Labour leadership’s recognition that most of its goals can be achieved in the context of a mixed economy • Agreement on tools of Keynsian economics – demand management • 1950s = time of relative prosperity: • Harold MacMillan: ‘you never had it so good’

  6. UK: Economic problems in 1960s • Slower rates of economic growth • Frequent strikes, troubled labour relations • Strong trade unions, craft-based, frequent jurisdictional disputes • Aging industrial plant reflecting • Earlier industrialization • Relative lack of wartime destruction • Unsuccessful attempts to imitate France’s indicative (voluntary) economic planning

  7. 4th Republic France • Ongoing urbanization and industrialization • facilitated by economic planning, state-directed modernization • Ongoing conflict over form of government • Chronic cabinet instability: • 26 cabinets between 1946 & 1958 • Ongoing conflict over decolonization • Indochina • Algeria

  8. The Fifth Republic • Presidential regime established in 1958, following threatened military couphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxqGUJUp0ng&feature=related • De Gaulle summoned back to power • Proposes mixed presidential-parliamentary regime • Negotiates Algerian independence • Presidential Republic brings relative stability • Entrenches right: controls Presidency & parliament until 1981 • Yet, government nearly toppled in 1968, following massive student strikes, occupation of buildings, demonstrations

  9. Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) • Under allied guidance, return to earlier constitutionalism • Emphasis on rechtstaat – a ‘state of law’ • Rapid reduction in the number of political parties • 1949 as “the last election of Weimar” • Introduction of the 5% electoral threshold in 1953 • Rapid elimination of smaller parties • Predominance of Christian Democratic Union, Social Democrats, and Free Democrats

  10. The economic miracle • Cooperation at home • ‘social market economy’ • Cooperation of unions, employers, investment banks • Stability of Deutschmark • under watchful eye of Bundesbank (an independent central bank) within new international regime • Rapid economic recovery • facilitated through 1961 by influx of refugees from the east • Marshall Plan aid • Recovery elsewhere

  11. Cementing Germany into the West • Loyal ally: • FRG allowed to join NATO in 1955 • Frontier in Cold War • Loyal European: founding member of • European Coal & Steel Community (1951) • Euratom and European Economic Community (EEC), also 1956

  12. The new party politics • Ascendency of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) under Konrad Adenauer • CDU as a volkspartei or people’s party, open to all comers (Protestants as well as Catholics) • Campaigns on success of ‘social market economy’ • ‘No experiments’ • Social Democrats (SPD) • As before, a Marxist party, but willing to work within the system • Electoral support levels off at ~ 33% • 1959 Party Congress (Bad Godesberg) expunges all references to class conflict • Free Democrats (FDP): small liberal party, able to ally with CDU (1949-1966) or later, SPD (1969-82)

  13. Germany in the 1950s • A sense of exhaustion? • Quiescence? • A society turned in on itself • Discomfort with conflict • Comfortable with Adenauer’s campaign promise: “No experiments” • Silence: little public or private discussion of holocaust • Strong sense of law (rechtstaat) – laws must be obeyed

  14. A puzzle: How was it possible to establish liberal democracy in the aftermath of Nazism? • Impact of affluence • Narrowing of political agenda and political options • Exclusion of extreme parties and options • The levelling effects of Nazism (view of Ralf Dahrendorf)

  15. Italy • Pre-eminent position of Christian Democracy (DC) • Draws support from Vatican, practicing Catholics • Governs, typically in coalition with others • Extends support via clientelismo • Principal opposition • Italian Communist Party (PCI) • Governing party in Bologna, Emilia Romagna • Steady growth through 1970s • Italian Social Movement (MSI) – small ultra right party • Persistent North-South & regional divisions

  16. A new Europe? By the early 1960s: • Most colonies shed, sometimes more smoothly than others: • Britain manages, • traumatic for France, Netherlands, Belgium • Earlier cleavages, conflicts for the most part channelled, under control… • Governments play active role in economic life • Beginnings of affluence • New social mores

  17. Balance sheet • Economic stability • Conflicts contained • Political stability • Minimal support for extreme politics • Few changes in government: coalitions endure over several elections • A Germany, partitioned • which France tolerate • with which the west could live • that could be integrated into Europe • In which normality could prevail (eventually)

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