The eurozone crisis is one of the most significant challenges EU policymakers have yet faced. Waltraud Schelkle examines Germany’s reaction to the crisis, finding that while Germany proposed economic self-restraint in 2008, it also embarked on a policy of domestic fiscal stimulus to the welfare system and car industry that amounted to 3 per cent of GDP. She argues that hard times can often lead to a delicate balance being struck between the presentation of policies to the electorate on the one hand, and the need to balance the needs of interest groups on the other: what she terms the ‘dual politics of policymaking’.
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