Browsing by Author "Tsarouhas, Dimitris"

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Open Access
Causes and consequences of crisis in the eurozone periphery
(Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018) Parker, O.; Tsarouhas, Dimitris
This volume considers the political economy dynamics that both caused and were precipitated by the Eurozone crisis in four of the hardest-hit so-called periphery country cases—Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Greece. This introduction focuses on the broader structures that underpinned the Eurozone crisis, whereas the chapters that follow zoom in on domestic cases. It argues that a single currency designed in accordance with neoliberal ‘efficient market’ ideas was at the heart of the crisis, exacerbating dangerous economic divergences between a so-called core of creditor states and periphery of debtor states. Responses to the crisis were, it is suggested, premised on the very same neoliberal ideas and made matters worse for a struggling ‘periphery’. More effective responses exist in theory, but are politically difficult in practice.
Open Access
EU economic governance and Covid-19: policy learning and windows of opportunity
(Taylor and Francis, 2020) Ladia, S.; Tsarouhas, Dimitris
This article analyses the extent to which the Covid-19 pandemic crisis represents a window of opportunity towards fundamental change in the economic governance of the European Union (EU). Adopting a historical institutionalist (HI) perspective and drawing insights from the policy learning literature, we argue that contingent learning immediately took place and policy entrepreneurs took important decisions recognising the new crisis as an existential threat for the EU. Further, the pandemic crisis support fund and the ECB pandemic emergency purchase programme represent instances of single loop learning that leave the fundamentals of economic governance untouched. However, and in contrast to the Euro area crisis response, the adoption of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) represents a bold decision and suggests double-loop learning. It is argued that the Covid-19 crisis is a critical juncture for the EU. As a result, EU economic governance ceases to be limited to its regulatory function and is now complemented by a redistributive function as well.
Open Access
Foreword chaos and complexity theory in world politics
(IGI Global, 2014) Tsarouhas, Dimitris
[No abstract available]
Open Access
Frame extension, trade union identities and wage politics : evidence from Sweden
(Oxford University Press, 2011) Tsarouhas, Dimitris
Drawing on frame theory, this paper examines how policy entrepreneurs within the Swedish Trade Union Confederation Landsorganisationen i Sverige (LO) embarked on a campaign to extend an exclusively class-based solidarity frame along gender lines. In the process, LO’s identity was modified. Once the new solidarity frame had been accepted, it was operationalized in the collective bargaining process through the creation of a “women’s pot”—i.e., a wage supplement given to female employees, or female-dominated sectors, to counter gender-based pay discrimination. Nevertheless, the new frame has yet to meet with success in the wage-bargaining arena, as LO faces problems of intra-union coordination in an unfavorable institutional context.
Open Access
Opening the box of parties and party systems under autocratization: evidence from Turkey
(Routledge, 2022-10-25) Tsarouhas, Dimitris; Yavuzyılmaz, H.
Party institutionalization (PI) and party system institutionalization (PSI) are critical for processes of democratization and democratic consolidation, yet their impact and relationship have not been explored under conditions of autocratization. How does autocratization relate to party and party system stability, and how does that link manifest itself? To answer those questions, we draw evidence from Turkey to demonstrate that when autocratization occurs, stabilization at the systemic level can go hand in hand with declining levels of PI. We also conceptualize the process of stabilization at the systemic level alongside unit-level de-institutionalization as a form of systemic ossification. Ossified party systems appear stable but are continuously subject to the possibility of de-stabilization, or even implosion, due to the under-institutionalization of incumbent parties. Driving factors of such (de)stabilization are: (1) the increasing unevenness of party competition and (2) increasing levels of societal and political polarization resulting from autocratization.
Open Access
Policy transfer, external actors and policy conditionality: public financial management reform in Turkey
(Taylor and Francis, 2020) Tsarouhas, Dimitris
Turkey’s economic turmoil of today is reminiscent of an earlier era, during which instability, high inflation, and financial mismanagement ruled the day. Yet until recently, Turkey was celebrated as an economic success story, enjoying rising prosperity, high GDP growth, and a healthy fiscal outlook. How was that success possible? Which mechanisms allowed for successful policy reform and how did internal reform dynamics interact with exogenous factors? This article examines the effects of EU and IFI policy conditionality on Turkey, arguing that EU-induced conditionality is more effective compared to IFI conditionality. Further, this work demonstrates the formation of a domestic epistemic community, which evolved into an advocacy coalition and became a crucial pillar for policy reform. Finally, shrewd policy entrepreneurs used a favorable window of opportunity and aligned with the reformist coalition to overcome barriers to policy change.
Open Access
Political discourse and path shaping in public policy: comparing pension reforms in Greece and Italy
(Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2012) Tsarouhas, Dimitris
Which factors account for successful policy reform and what role does discourse play in the process? This article examines this empirical puzzle with reference to the issue of Greek reform failure. A matched comparison with Italy in the area of pensions reveals the salience of path shaping and the use of political discourse in narrowing down reform options and facilitating change. The Greek case of limited public information, incoherent preparation of the problem, and inner-circle decision-making, is contrasted with the Italian government's information-sharing and consensus-building campaign for the establishment of a pro-reformist discourse. Findings confirm the salience of institutional conditions but suggest that pure institutionalist accounts premised on rational choice thinking and the power of veto players should be complemented with more agency-driven accounts of public policy.
Open Access
The political economy of Greek-Turkish relations
(Routledge, 2009) Tsarouhas, Dimitris
This paper revisits the Greek-Turkish rapprochement, taking as its point of departure the two states' economic relations, and explores possible linkages to political cooperation. The paper finds growing collaboration in a context characterized by the proliferation of non-state actors in economic decision-making, and underlines the role played by FDI flows and trade decisions in stimulating cooperation. At the same time, it rejects an uncritical acceptance of economic functionalism and stresses the salience of politics, above and beyond Turkey's EU candidacy, to consolidate the gains from the rapprochement.
Open Access
Rethinking the European social model
(Foundation for European Progressive Studies, 2016) Tsarouhas, Dimitris; Stetter, E.; Duffek, K.; Skrzypek, A.
The concept of the European Social Model (ESM) has been used by academics and practitioners alike for quite some time. Though its precise conceptualization often remained elusive, its use was welcomed across much of the mainstream party political spectrum in Europe. After all and although the ESM could be interpreted in different ways, it surely stood for the uniqueness of the west European version of capitalism, normative or real, and the positive connotations associated with it. The banking, sovereign debt, financial and economic crisis, however, has contributed not only to a drop in economic output and higher unemployment across much of the European Union (EU). It is also leading to a new soul-searching mission as to what the ESM really is, not least in light of the conscious political choice to adopt austerity politics as a mechanism of economic “catharsis”, and to impose the costs of “adjustment” mostly on those least in a position to defend themselves from freely floating market forces. Given the heterogeneity of EU member states and their very diverse institutional and organizational features, does a European Social Model still exist today, even at a normative level of common aspiration? Is the policy of socio-economic convergence between the localities, regions and states of Europe still part of a grand EU contract to which the citizens of Europe can have faith? Or does the crisis underline and aggravate EU heterogeneity, leading to internal competition on economic performance, thus relegating further any concerns the Union aspires to in terms of social protection and cohesion? In other words, is ECB President Mario Draghi write when claiming that the “European Social Model is already gone”?
Open Access
Social democracy and trade unions
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) Tsarouhas, Dimitris; Meyer, H.; Rutherford, J.
Are trade unions still relevant for social democracy? Not so long ago such a question would have sounded very odd indeed. Social democracy was the natural habitat of the trade union movement, the political space where union aspirations for better living conditions and the quest for solidarity found a sympathetic hearing and, more often than not, materialized in progressive legislation. The relationship was reciprocal, too: Social Democratic Parties enjoyed the benefits of close union ties in the electoral arena, directly through union political support and indirectly through funding campaigns, sponsoring and political propaganda. Perhaps more importantly, social democratic activists and politicians cultivated strong union ties to get a foothold in workplaces and thus to experience firsthand the fears and needs of working people. Social democracy and trade unions cultivated intimate ties at many different levels.
Open Access
Social partnership in Greece : is there a Europeanization effect?
(Sage Publications Ltd., 2008) Tsarouhas, Dimitris
How should one understand the influence of Europeanization on social partnership? This article examines the impact of the European Employment Strategy (EES) on Greek social partnership and the role of employers and unions in the formulation of labour market policy. It identifies two potential levels of influence: first-level change which leads to an alteration of policy discourse, and second-level change which opens up space for reforms in policy actors' preferences and institutional resources. Empirical findings show a loose and indirect link between the advancement of Greek social partnership and the EES. Policy legacies and institutional inadequacies are decisive. Nonetheless, contrasting the Greek and Italian cases reveals the room for manoeuvre available to unions willing to invest in organizational restructuring and a bigger say in the policy process.
Open Access
Social policy in the EU and Turkey : the limits of Europeanisation
(Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2012) Tsarouhas, Dimitris
[No abstract available]
Open Access
Structure, agents and discourse in managing economic crises: the case of Greece, 2009-2017
(International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT), 2018) Tsarouhas, Dimitris
This article focuses on the discursive frames used by policy entrepreneurs in Greece as they attempted to deal with the 2009 crisis and analyses the role played by discourse in handling the crisis’ consequences. Adopting a historical institutionalist framework, I argue that ineffective policy outcomes can be attributed to a path-dependent logic enshrined in the country’s political economy structures following the transition to democracy post-1974. Moreover, the reaction of policy entrepreneurs to the crisis was reinforced by their discursive logic of action, itself embedded in the state’s institutional matrix. Procrastination, a refusal to face an uncomfortable reality and politics as usual colours the response of Greek actors to the country’s biggest crisis in recent memory.
Open Access
Trade, non-state actors and conflict: evidence from Greece and Turkey
(Routledge, 2018) Tsarouhas, Dimitris; Yazgan, N.
To what extent does growing trade lessen the probability of inter-state conflict? This paper addresses this question by using the curiously under-studied dyadic relationship between Greece and Turkey. Measuring trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) volumes as well as tourism flows and by use of elite interviews with key actors from both countries, we find that economic relations have become stronger and more diverse over time, non-state actors now featuring prominently in deepening interaction. Such developments, however, fail to translate into conflict resolution at the political level. To account for these findings, we use a New Liberal approach, arguing that this helps us explain both enhanced plurality in bilateral economic exchange and the incompatibility of the two countries' respective conceptions regarding legitimate national borders.
Open Access
Turkey: identity politics and reticent Europeanisation
(Manchester University Press, 2018) Tsarouhas, Dimitris; Mannin, M.; Flenley, P.
Turkey constitutes a particularly challenging case with regard to Europeanisation studies as well as the importance of identity politics in its relations to the European Union (EU). This chapter considers the tensions between values and interests in the Turkey-EU relationship, using a longitudinal method. It addresses recent developments in Turkey-EU relations that go beyond bilateralism, underscoring the salience of factors such as migration and instability in the Middle East as added variables to this relationship. The chapter introduces EU-Turkey relations by analysing some of the main patterns of Turkey's identity politics that have contributed to its domestic as well as international political outlook since the foundation of the Republic. It provides a theoretical discussion on Europeanisation and applies this framework to accession countries through the prism of conditionality and the specific role of candidate countries.