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The Eurozone Faced Competition Among Actors

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The Eurozone faced competition among actors regarding who can explain the reasons behind the emergence of the crises and the best way to resolve the challenges facing them (Apak and Atay 2012: 561). Germany is always on the center stage in the Eurozone crisis due to its economy strength and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ability to negotiate the response to the crisis (Apak and Atay 2012: 562). According to Apak and Atay (2012), Merkel worked to promote the budgetary rigor and austerity, hence portrays the overwhelming national debt as the cause of the crisis. Merkel also disputes the structural weaknesses or imbalances in the Euro area as a cause of the crisis as asserted by Feldstein (2010). Her aim is to dominate the narrative of the …show more content…

The issues are: Strategic Narratives and the Eurozone Crisis Crises are social constructions forged by the government officials while producing and reproducing the state identity (Feldstein 2010). The German narrative seeks to between reinforcing its pro-integrationists credentials and their wish to influence the EU’s response according to the preferences and approaches of Berlin (Angelopoulou, Balfoussia and Gibson 2014: 392-395). The EU member states cannot agree on a uniform explanation and a viable solution that will overcome the Euros problems (Feldstein 2010). Communication is vital to understanding the Euro crisis, in which the narrative analysis of public policy emphasizes the processes of identifying the nature of the problem, outlining a solution, and indicating the outcome (Feldstein 2010). The Euro crisis reinforced the interconnectivity of European economies, leading to greater public awareness on the impact of European issues on national policies (Fratzscher 2015). Political actors, through the strategic narrative, construct a shared meaning of the past, present, and future of international politics with the aim of shaping the behaviour of domestic and international actors. For example, in the Eurozone crisis, narratives legitimate policy responses reinforce domestic and international support and challenge the counter-narratives as Fratzscher (2015). Narratives are strategic anthems to the future of the state in which the German government engages in

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