Full summary - Economy of the Single Market (Chapters 1 to 5)
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Course
Economy of the Single Market
Institution
Katholieke Universiteit Brussel (KUB)
Full summary of the course Economy of the Single Market in third year of bachelor business administration at KUL (Brussels) + includes short summary at the end of each chapters with key insights
Chapter 1 : 75 years of European Integration : The main events and lessons - PART I
1. 75 years of the European Integration : An ever wider and deeper Europe : ! or ?
1.1. 1954-2008 : An ever wider and deeper Europe !!!
1.2. 2008-2019 : An ever wider and deeper Europe ???
1.1.1. Increasing Eurosepticism
1.1.2. The re-emerging of populism
1.1.3. 2019 : only a small virus
2. The emergence of a divided Europe : the beginning of the Cold War
2.1. The speech by Englishman that led to the use of starvation for political
coercion
2.1.1. The sinews of Peace-speeches
2.1.2. Stalin’s use of mass starvation for political coercion
2.2. A clear cut between Western and Earner’s Europe through the establishment
of several institutions
2.2.1. NATO (°1949)
2.2.2. BRD (°1949)
2.2.3. DDR (°1949)
2.2.4. The Iron Curtain (°1949)
- = E orts by SU to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with West and allied states
- Started from formation DDR (Republic Eastern part of Germany)
- How ?
- Border controls
- Barded wire, walls, land mines, towers
- Compare it to the wall between US and Mexico
- Not everything was protected -> people found their way in
- The name ‘Iron Curtain’
- = Metaphor for separation West and East
- Goes back to time where they had for reproof curtains in theatres to cut down re
- Churchill took name is famous speech
- Refers to barded wire along the border of the wall
- Common saying : “European construction was meant to keep
Americans in, Russians out and Germans down”
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, - European Integration was on the surface an eco project but deep down a military and political
policy project
2.2.5. The Warsaw Pact (°1955)
- Singed in 1955
- Military alliance pf communist countries that was signed as counterpart to the NATO
- 8 states : SU + Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania
- Yugoslavia not a member !
- Albania drew out in 1968
2.2.6. The Berlin Wall (°1961)
- Berlin : entirely communist territory -> West Berlin was Capitalist and belonged to Western Europe
- Berlin was surrounded by communist territory -> border between West and East Europe
- BUT : within Berlin -> people could move from West to East and inversely
- A lot of young, skilled people moved from East to West for more opportunities
- = Brain Drain for East Germany (highly skilled people leaving) -> 1949-1961
- Put and end to it -> Berlin Wall (43 km long) -> East said “made the wall to protect people from
fascist from the West”, in fact stop people from leaving East
- Created division of Eastern and Western Europe
2.2.7. The Brezhnev doctrine (°1968)
- Soviet sabotaged all reforms via eco pressure and military force
- Example : against independent movement in Hungary (1956)
- Why
- Soviets considered their system (communism) the best thing in the world + satellite states have
to obey otherwise soviets will send the army
- Brezhnev doctrine
- It stated: “When forces that are hostile to socialism try to turn the development of some
socialist country towards capitalism, it becomes not only a problem of the country concerned,
but a common problem and concern of all socialist countries.”
- Policy of military intervention was justi ed whenever a satellite state wanted to move from
communism (leave USSR)
- Why only in 1968
- To justify what he had done in the past (Hungary and Czechoslovakia), what he did worked
but in the end people became unhappy
- He wanted to show that Moscow was in power and the leader and that no satellite state was
allowed to leave USSR
4. Eastern Europe (1950-1990)
4.1. Life in the SU (1950-1985)
4.1.1. Stalinism
- Until 1953 (death of Stalin)
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,- Internal policy : dictator, personal glori cation (streets named after him, status), people were sent
to Gulag if not listening
- Socio-economic policy : state decided everything (what, when, were how much you earn)
- Plan life of all citizens, no unemployment, free health-care and free schooling
- To show people communist was the best
- In fact : working conditions were horrible, no freedom of speech, long hours, work discipline
- No focus on consumer goods (contrast with capitalist world -> focus on consumer society)
- But people did not realise it bc communist decided what is said on radio, showed on tv
- e.g. showed a movie about an orphan to children and they said this is how capitalist children
live (poverty, low class,…) -> people believed what was being said
- 5 years-plan focusing on heavy industry (= what you need in case of war)
4.1.2. Destalinization under Chroesjtsjov
- 1953-1964
- Internal policy : everything was rename (desalinisation)
- Communism is not bad but leader (Stalin) was -> bc he abused of his power
- Socio-economic policy : focus more on agricultural sector but problem remained
- e.g. over exploited land but wasn’t aware of the danger
- Focus on consumer goods e.g. Trabant car
4.1.3. the ‘old guys’ : Brezhnev, Andropov, Tsjernenko
- 1964 until 1985
- Brezhnev doctrine : sent army if not obey
- Internal policy : period of immobilism, people in power enriched themselves at the expense of the
poor
- People were very afraid to speak out to friends bc KGB was everywhere
- Dangerous to be involved in ‘Western things’
- “World of mass illusion” : individual part was part of a whole and white was part of individual
- Socio-economic policy : 5-year plan was not in one with reality
- E.g. rent a house : wait 15 years and once you get it, at is horrible
- Shortages in consumer goods -> wait 5 hours a day to get meat, eggs,… + bad quality
- Romanian saying : “if you do not have a granny, you better buy one”
- You better live with your granny and once she dies you get the at
- Bc people have to wait too long in line -> their granny’s are waiting in front of the store the
entire night to be the rst served in the morning
- Important to keep appearances good -> show to the West that everything was nice in the USSR
- By enormous military expenditures (e.g. mission on the moon)
- SU fell in eco, technological, social and military decline
- e.g. Tsjernobyl : people on the radio said it is okay only a small incident -> after some time they
said close the windows and it scared people (parents got their children out of school)
- SU did not react quickly enough and led to disaster
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, 4.2. Perestroika and Glasnot (1986)
4.2.1. By the mid-1980’s, the SU was completely paralysed
- 1961 : standards of living of East and West were similar but by 1980 : West’ economic and political
system was way better than East
- Why :
- 1965-1985 : area of stagnation : political and economic stagnation under president Brezhnev
- Leaders and lots of power and wealth -> became even richer on behalf of poor people (they
had nothing) so they did not feel the need for innovation
- No innovation led to a disadvantage of USSR compared to West
- Many recourses were used for nuclear arms race against West
- Halfway through 1980’s : soviet system forced changes in USSR itself
- Until then, only realised that Stalin was bad but still considered communism ad good thing
4.2.2. Communism with a human face
- 1985 : Gorbachev was elected ‘General Secretary’ of communist party
- Realised something was wrong
- Acknowledged total decline of SU
- Hoped to solve crisis with ‘revolutionary measures’
- Proposed 50% reduction in nuclear weapons -> to de-escalte Cold War -> proposal was
rejected)
- Sought middle ground between communism and capitalism
- “Communism with a human face”
- Communist regime but with political, economical, cultural and personal freedom
- Program of reform consisting in 3 parts
- Perestrojka : restructuring (economic reform)
- Economy was scaled back -> elements of free market was introduced (shops, pubs,
restaurant, supply/demand)
- People can choose what they want to produce -> never seen before in communism
- Glasnost : Openness/transaprancy
- Against corruption (Brezhnev, KGB,…)
- Make sure that power of people on top became smaller
- Implement real elections -> still one party (communist) but with multiple candidates
(progressive/conservative people)
- More spiritual freedom -> freedom from press (writing their thoughts down and talking
to people)
- For the rst time, soviet were able to read a newspaper about real SU conditions
(corruption, inadequate healthcare, eco problems,…)
- “New thinking” : complete new foreign policy
- Only possible if enough money (pursuing a less cost strategy than predecessors)
- Received Nobel price for wanting to end Cold War and built international peace
- Did not work !!
- Implemented it too quickly + when the people were asking themselves what is in there for me
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