Legitimar el mercado: el neoliberalismo y el «juego» de la integración monetaria europea en España

Abstract

The impact of monetary union within the European context has been the subject of much academic and political dialogue. This is a central feature of the European Union’s construction of a unified and regulated economic space capable of providing a stable and supportive environment for economic and social growth. However, such a project has been the subject of criticism from a variety of political and academic positions that argue that the new European order is based on a neo-liberal/ competitiveness discourse that prioritises the attraction of capital and investment as opposed to its formation and regulation. In terms of Spain, Kennedy (1996) has argued that this reference point is central to the political and social policies of integration within Spain which underplay broader social and interventionists interests much to the detriment of the Spanish economy. The paper will extend Kennedy’s critique of European integration by studying the way the «regulation of the state» within a monetary framework is based on (i) the construction of a political and academic framework which undermines alternatives and (ii) the use of select «comparisons» and myths regarding the Spanish economy which erode the appearance of problematic developments that emerge from integration. In this respect integration is not simply a case of suppressing alternatives in the adventure to be «part of Europe» but of moulding political discourses regarding Europe and contextualising integration in such a way that it isolates alternative discourses.