15: European Politics and Society

Wade Jacoby, Brigham Young University, wade_jacoby@byu.edu

The European Politics Section welcomes papers for the 2010 APSA meeting under the theme “The Politics of Hard Times: Citizens, Nations, and the International System under Economic Stress.” In comparison to the United States, some European countries seemed initially less deeply affected by the most recent economic crisis. At the same time, several others states already have had to seek IMF assistance. How have European states approached “hard times” both historically and today? On the political economy, is there a distinctive European approach to economic crisis, or is the range of responses essentially as broad as the global range? Do different welfare state and labor market traditions provide traction for distinctive policies? Democratic politics can also fall on hard times with substantial implications for the politics of identity and representation. What are the most important sub-national, national, and supra-national reactions to major disruptions of “normal politics”? What implications do hard times have for the shape and substance of multilateral organizations long influenced by European states? To what extent do various social actors mitigate or exacerbate hard times? What do European traditions in social and political theory – themselves often forged in the shadow of hard times – have to say to us today?