A Banking Union of Ideas? The Impact of Ordoliberalism and the Vicious Circle on the EU Banking Union
本文指出自由政府间主义无法解释德国在欧盟银行业联盟中的偏好形成与让步，提出秩序自由主义思想塑造了德国偏好，而对手利用“打破恶性循环”的修辞陷阱迫使德国让步。
Abstract The establishment of the EU banking union reveals two major shortcomings of liberal intergovernmentalism. First, it fails to explain the preference formation of the most important actor – the German government. The banking sector was divided between public and private banks, and there is no clear‐cut pattern about whose interests the German government promoted. Second, material bargaining power cannot account for German concessions despite favourable power asymmetries. This article seeks to demonstrate how an ideational frame can convincingly fill these gaps. Ordoliberal ideas were constitutive for German preferences. The manipulative use of ideas as strategic resources by the German government's opponents explains why it made significant concessions. Germany's government publicly acknowledged that breaking the ‘vicious circle’ between banks and sovereigns was the main objective of the banking union. This became a rhetorical trap used by a coalition of Southern European member states to force the German government to make concessions.