Political Economy of Crises and Economic Integration

The political economy of crises and economic integration examines how financial, sovereign debt and health emergencies reshape the processes and institutions of regional and global integration. Research in this field explores the interaction between national policy autonomy and supranational governance, highlighting how crisis management measures—ranging from conditional bail-outs and austerity programmes to monetary interventions—reconfigure power relations among states, social classes and economic actors. Such analyses pay close attention to the distributive consequences of integration, showing how mechanisms like competitive internal devaluation or fiscal conditionality alter labour-market institutions, trade unions’ influence and states’ capacity to pursue social welfare objectives. At the same time, scholars investigate how states and non-state actors mobilise in defence of domestic interests, contesting or accommodating supranational pressures. By tracing these dynamics across euro-area adjustments, trade negotiations and global financial architectures, the literature reveals the dual role of crises as both catalysts of deeper integration and sources of fragmentation. The insights obtained inform policy design by underscoring the need for institutional resilience, social protection mechanisms and equitable burden-sharing arrangements during episodes of economic turmoil.

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Political Economy of Crises and Economic Integration publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in political economy of crises and economic integration across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Economic integration: The process of reducing barriers to trade, capital and labour movements among countries, often through customs unions, common markets or monetary unions.

Sovereign debt crisis: A situation in which a government cannot service or repay its national debt, prompting external assistance and conditional policy measures.

Competitive internal devaluation: A strategy whereby states adjust domestic wages and labour-market rules to restore external competitiveness without altering official exchange rates.

Conditionality: The practice of tying financial assistance or policy support to the implementation of specified economic or institutional reforms.

Supranational governance: Institutional mechanisms that enable decision-making authority beyond the nation-state, such as monetary unions or regional regulatory bodies.

References

1. The politics of structural reform in Ireland: Dominant growth coalitions, domestic business elites, and internal devaluation. Competition & Change (2023).
2. How the Eurozone disempowers trade unions: the political economy of competitive internal devaluation. Socio-Economic Review (2020).
3. Structure, Agency, and Structural Reform: The Case of the European Central Bank. Perspectives on Politics (2024).