A monster in the making. On the euro crisis and democracy

What started off as a political project aimed at strengthening democracies has become an economic project in crisis that undermines democracy. That is how economist Matthias Matthijs describes the European Union and the euro crisis.

When Matthias came to visit last autumn he spoke at our research seminar series about how the euro project seems to be eroding democracy in some countries, widening the gap between northern and southern Europe. This development, says Matthias, is dangerous in many ways. If we don't acknowledge the problems and start doing something about them, we might be fostering a monster.

Sociologist Stefan Svallfors took the chance to interview Matthias after the seminar, asking him to explain why this is happening, why the clever people in the EU commission don’t seem to react, and what needs to be done in order for Europe not to end up in the 1930ies all over again.