Kaitlyn Hill

Date Approved

2014

Date Posted

4-28-2014

Degree Type

Open Access Senior Honors Thesis

Department or School

Political Science

First Advisor

Nitya Singh, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Jeffrey Bernstein, Ph.D.

Abstract

The Eurozone economic crisis, which began in 2008, has had far reaching and destructive effects on the future of Europe, its trading partners and the global economic system as a whole. In order to begin to understand the implications it has had on the future of Europe as a whole it is important to look at why different member countries suffered such divergent repercussions. This research seeks to explain this divergence by focusing on the experiences of Germany and France and comparing them to one another. The question to be answered is why has there been such a difference in economic success and recovery between the economies of France and Germany since the crisis? The ultimate answer to this question is that Germany and France were subject to six factors: 1) the use of an export -manufacturing development model; 2) the timing and nature of the economic reforms implemented by each state; 3) the orientation of the countries policies being in favor of national or Union interests; 4) the economic and political status of each state within the region; 5) the identity of major export partners; 6) the amount of capital flow into the state. Using both quantitative and qualitative data to study these factors we find not only the reasons behind Germany's economic success, but also some of the potential future possibilities of the Eurozone and of European integration plans as a whole.

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