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Creating Stability: National Preferences and the Origins of European Monetary System, CES Germany & Europe Working Papers, no.00.9, December

Aspinwall, Mark. (2000) Creating Stability: National Preferences and the Origins of European Monetary System, CES Germany & Europe Working Papers, no.00.9, December. [Working Paper]

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    Abstract

    This essay compares the preferences of France, Italy, and Britain on the creation of the European Monetary System in 1978-1979, especially the Exchange Rate Mechanism, which stabilised nominal exchange rates. My claim is that the different conclusions reached by the governments (France and Italy in, Britain out) cannot be explained by economic circumstances or by interests, and I elaborate an intervening institutional variable which helps explain preferences. Deducing from spatial theory that where decisionmakers `sit' on the left-right spectrum matters to their position on the EMS, I argue that domestic constitutional power-. sharing mechanisms privilege certain actors over others in a predictable and consistent way. Where centrists were in power, the government's decision was to join. Where left or right extremists were privileged, the government's decision was negative. The article measures the centrism of the governments in place at the time, and also reviews the positions taken by the national political parties in and out of government. It is intended to contribute to the growing comparativist literature on the European Union, and to the burgeoning literature on EU-member-state relations.

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    Item Type: Working Paper
    Subjects for non-EU documents: Countries > Italy
    Countries > France
    EU policies and themes > EU institutions & developments > institutional development/policy > historical development of EC (pre-1986)
    Countries > U.K.
    EU policies and themes > Policies & related activities > economic and financial affairs > EMU/EMS/euro
    Subjects for EU documents: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Series and Periodicals: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Annual Reports: UNSPECIFIED
    Series: Series > Harvard University, Center for European Studies > Program for the Study of Germany and European Working Papers Series
    Depositing User: Phil Wilkin
    Official EU Document: No
    Language: English
    Date Deposited: 08 Jun 2009
    Page Range: p. 38
    Last Modified: 15 Feb 2011 18:00
    URI: http://aei.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9300

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