Martin Wolf looks at Europe and gets depressed

Martin Wolf, never the sunniest of economic commentators, is very worried at the state of Europe. He examines the “big three” of continental Europe — Germany, France and Italy — and finds weak, timid governments (subscribers only: I’ll repeat again that Wolf is the single columnist most grievously ill-served by a subscription firewall. His audience should be in the millions, not the mere handful, however powerful, that read the FT):

It is not that reforms have been absent; it is rather that they have been grossly inadequate. It is also not that policymaking elites are unaware of the challenges; it is rather that they are unwilling to expound them. In France, remarkably, the population seems to believe that everybody can – and should – be treated just like a civil servant. They seek a miraculous combination of almost absolute job security with rising prosperity. In a rapidly changing world, this is a form of collective cognitive disorder.

Administrative centralism tempered by popular upheaval has been the historic characteristic of France. Localism and clientelism have similarly characterised Italy’s politics. In Germany, unification has also made the country less governable: without it a grand coalition would presumably have been unnecessary. None of these countries has found it easy to change direction without turmoil. France is even achieving turmoil and no change in direction.

The world must now contemplate a future in which the continent’s most important countries have fragile governments presiding over disgruntled populations. Given their weight, these countries can make it impossible for the EU to function, by undermining the effectiveness of the European Commission, assailing the single market, resisting enlargement and opposing concessions needed to complete multilateral trade negotiations inside the World Trade Organisation. These governments augur ill, therefore, not just for domestic reform, but for the fate of the eurozone, the EU, and the EU’s role in the world. Failures of domestic politics and of public education on this scale cause more than a few little local difficulties. They have malign consequences for the wider world.

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