Public lecture
Announcing Dr. Dimitris Papadimitriou as this year's Edward and Emily McWhinney Memorial Lecture speaker
Abstract
Bailout Legacies: The Imprint of the Greek Economic Crisis on the European Union
The ‘euro’ bailouts have moved the EU into unprecedented territory: an intervention into the domestic governance of member-states that involves externally imposed conditionalities and intense monitoring of government performance under conditions of partially suspended sovereignty. From the outset, the discourse of this intervention was grounded on biblical terms; of unrepentant ‘sinners’ and of a collective action problem based on ‘moral hazard’. No EU bailout has proved more problematic than that of Greece, with its now three ‘rescues’. The challenge is both instrumental and normative. This talk addresses the effectiveness of the Troika’s intervention in Greece as a case of the EU’s crisis management capacity. The normative implications of such intervention are immense and stretch beyond Greece: they affect understandings of accountability, democratic choice and legitimacy within the process of European integration.
Speaker Bio
Dimitris Papadimitriou
Prof. Papadimitriou is Professor of Politics at the University of Manchester and Director of the Manchester Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence. He has previously held visiting posts at Princeton University, the London School of Economics and Yale University. He has written extensively on the European Union’s political economy and external relations. He is also a leading scholar of Greek politics and public policy. His last book, Prime Ministers in Greece: The Paradox of Power (with Kevin Featherstone) was published by Oxford University Press in 2015.
Edward and Emily McWhinney
The Edward and Emily McWhinney Memorial Lecture was established in 2017 to honour the memory of two long-time friends and supporters of Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University and is devoted to contemporary issues in international relations.
Both Edward and Emily were committed to academic excellence and public service and this now annual lecture is a lasting legacy for the couple at SFU. It is organized by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies to support public discussion of the topics that animated the McWhinneys’ professional and intellectual lives.
Professor Emeritus Edward Mcwhinney, QC passed away in 2015 on his ninety-first birthday, following a short illness. He was predeceased by his wife Emily McWhinney, who passed away in 2011.