European political elites in crisis

The international financial crisis has developed into the greatest challenge for the process of European integration so far, jeopardizing the mere existence of the European Union and in particular of the common European currency. On the other hand has the threat of a collapse of the financial system and the disastrous consequences it would trigger off in European societies, polities and economies set off a development towards full political integration with strong elements of a federal European state. Political elites in the member states of the Union are the main actors in this process. They have to decide on emergency measures which are undermining and in the long run dismantling sovereign budgetary rights of the member states. The proposed paper inquires into the elite-foundations of the process of crisis-management and crisis-solution in Europe. It examines which approaches to the financial crisis are favored by national elites – national, intergovernmental, supranational or combinations between these approaches. It also establishes which factors determine the preference of elites for a certain approach to crisis solution: contextual, ideological, normative, cognitive, utilitarian or structural. The empirical basis for this research is provided by the 2010 wave of the INTUNE elite-survey, which comprised 17 European countries and included a question about the favored approach to solving the financial crisis.