British Capitalism and European Unification, from Ottawa to the Brexit Referendum
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British capitalism has from the very beginning entertained an ambivalent relationship with the process of European unification. But that ambivalence has gone through different stages and since the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008 a new, conflictual, stage in that relationship began. This is the essential backdrop against which the Brexit referendum should be understood and its consequences evaluated.
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4
Panitch and Gindin 2012, p. 3; Panitch and Gindin 2015.
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7
Egan 2015.
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8
Panitch and Gindin 2012.
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9
Defraigne 2004, from p. 167 on.
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10
Chandler 1990, pp. 235–93; Jones 1997, pp. 103–12.
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12
Harris 1972, p. 29.
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13
Harris 1972, pp. 48–61.
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14
Chase 2005, pp. 69–88.
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15
Chase 2005, pp. 105–42.
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16
Dür 2010, pp. 50–82.
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17
Lundestad 1997, pp. 29–57.
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18
Rollings 2007, p. 80.
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19
Young 1999, pp. 71–98.
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20
Rollings 2007, p. 101.
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22
Moravscik 1998, p. 123.
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23
Milward 1992.
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24
Rollings 2007, p. 20 (trade) and pp. 49–70 (investment).
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25
Cited in Rollings 2007, p. 65.
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26
Rollings 2007, pp. 134 and 151 (large firms main proponents), p. 153 (farmers opposed, industry accepts cap).
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28
Hannah 1976, pp. 164–77.
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29
Servan-Schreiber 1967. The last point was not exaggeration on the part of a Euro-federalist. Subsequent studies (Wilkins 1996) have confirmed that American multinationals were quicker to set up pan-European operations than European corporations.
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30
Warlouzet 2011, pp. 440–4.
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31
Rollings 2007, pp. 157–9, has an industry-by-industry assessment of attitudes towards entry; pp. 163–78 (technological collaboration).
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33
Owen 2012, p. 11. In fact, the earliest occurrence of this Franco-British convergence was the 1962 agreement to launch the Concorde supersonic aircraft which eventually was a spectacular commercial failure. The Concorde was seen as Europe’s response to American dominance of the subsonic aircraft market.
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34
Baker, Gamble, Randall and Seawright 2008, p. 97.
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36
Nairn 1972, p. 95.
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37
Owen 1999, p. 4. These figures are for the economy as a whole but during these years they are good proxies for the performance of firms under British, French and German control respectively, as European corporations were yet to become the ‘regional multinationals’ (Rugman 2005) with Europeanised operations they gradually morphed into starting in the early 1970s (Franko 1976). These firms were also still largely under the control of domestic capitalists. ‘British industry’, therefore, means in this case British-controlled firms.
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38
Grant 1995.
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39
Jones 1997, p. 116; Owen 2012, p. 28 (engineering).
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41
Oliver and Wilkinson 1993.
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42
Eurostat 2014, p. 32 (income tax) and p. 36 (corporation tax). Fiscal competition within the eu due to fiscal decentralisation has meant that corporation tax rates continued falling throughout the eu in subsequent years. Britain, together with other tax havens such as Ireland, Luxemburg and Cyprus, has consistently opposed the eu-wide harmonisation of tax rates (apart from vat) advocated by France and Germany. Tony Blair blocked the extension of qualified majority voting to taxation in the Lisbon Treaty, thus retaining a British veto – essential for continued fiscal competition among member states.
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43
Helleiner 1994, pp. 83–4 (City early 1960s) and pp. 84–8 (United States capital controls).
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46
Congdon 2014, p. 15. Data in current prices.
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49
Underhill 1997.
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50
Cassis 2006, pp. 263–80.
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51
Epstein 2014.
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52
Grob-Fitzgibbon 2016.
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53
Van der Pijl 2012.
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54
Young 1999. The Foreign Office, on the contrary, has been the most consistently pro-eu department of the British state.
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55
Jenkins and Agnew 2016.
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56
Gillingham 2003, pp. 259–93.
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57
Moravcsik 1998, pp. 320 and 328–30.
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58
Liddle 2014, p. 37. The Major government opted out of the Social Charter in 1992. The Blair government opted in in 1997 to the delight of the trade unions and the dismay of the cbi. The Charter includes such provisions as the maximum working-time directive despised by Thatcherites but also minimal standards on maternity leave, paid holidays and so on.
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59
Baker, Gamble, Randall and Seawright 2008, p. 115.
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63
Rennie 2012, p. 35.
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64
Cited in Rennie 2012, p. 17. This echoes countless statements to the same effect from the cbi. For example, its chairman Roger Carr argued in the Observer in 2013 that ‘The UK is often the preferred bridge into Europe . . . EU membership encourages large company capital investment within the UK’.
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67
Booth 2009.
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71
Epstein 2014.
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72
Nairn 1972, p. 19.
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73
Georgiou 2014, pp. 284–7; 300–6.
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74
E.g. Congdon 2014.
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76
Barker 2011.
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78
Noble and Barker 2012.
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79
Pickford and Carnegy 2012.
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80
Rennie 2012, p. 3.
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81
Rennie 2012, p. 46.
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82
E.g. Macron and Gabriel 2015.
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84
Giles and Parker 2011.
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85
Parker and Barker 2016.
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87
Barker and Masters 2012. This was also the City’s preference. Many financiers disagreed with Cameron and the Treasury’s tactics in December 2011.
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88
Watt 2014.
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89
Donnan 2015.
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90
Piris 2016. This is because in any such negotiation, the same asymmetries of bargaining power would apply, as 45% of British exports go to the eu but only 10% of eu exports go to Britain.
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91
Ipsos-MORI 2016. This was a survey of ‘more than 100 of the most senior figures in top UK companies’, 87% of which backed membership. Tellingly, 67% cited eu regulation as the greatest drawback of membership.
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95
Arnold 2016.
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96
Parker and Noonan 2016.
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97
Marriage 2015.
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98
Turner 2015.
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99
Policy Network 2013, p. 22.
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102
Arnold and Noonan 2016.
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104
Cited in Brunsden and Chassany 2016.
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106
E.g. Lawson 2016. Davis 2016.
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British Capitalism and European Unification, from Ottawa to the Brexit Referendum
In: Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by Christakis Georgiou in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
British capitalism has from the very beginning entertained an ambivalent relationship with the process of European unification. But that ambivalence has gone through different stages and since the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008 a new, conflictual, stage in that relationship began. This is the essential backdrop against which the Brexit referendum should be understood and its consequences evaluated.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 2314 | 463 | 23 |
| Full Text Views | 2139 | 20 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 858 | 40 | 0 |