ABSTRACT
Regardless of whether the European Central Bank and European Monetary Union will be in place by January 1993, the tenor of the Single Market project is, above all, to stress price stability, monetary policy constraints, and market liberalization (Sandholtz and Zysman 1989; Grahl and Teague 1989). This chapter looks back to the earlier period of the European Monetaiy System (EMS), the predecessor of the European Monetary Union, to estimate what we can expect from the Community's new plan for full monetary and economic union. Unless the unity program is permanently shelved, everything seems to suggest a further strengthening of Germany's dominant position in Community developments (Kurzer and Allen 1992). The evidence for this comes from the events that have taken place in Belgium, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Gradually, they have adopted an economic policy agenda that has undeniable German parentage. This chapter asks why these countries not only have tolerated a loss of policy autonomy but have in fact positively replicated the neoliberal German model. Not too long ago, each of the three countries was considered a prototypical corporatist society with generous and universalistic social welfare entitlements (Esping-Andersen 1990).
