Leadership of powerful states and organizations is crucial for the success of regional integration projects. This book offers a theoretical model explaining such leadership. By applying the model to eurozone governance and reform, the book combines innovative theorizing on leadership in regional and international affairs with original research on Economic and Monetary Union politics. Six in-depth case studies analyze the (non-)leadership of Germany and EU institutions in eurozone crisis management. Moreover, the book evaluates the eurozone's leadership record since the outbreak of its crisis and helps readers understand the leadership of collective actors, and the extent to which they can contribute to overcoming crisis and fostering European integration. In particular, the book investigates the under-researched questions of who provided leadership in the eurozone crisis and why, and which conditions are required to achieve successful leadership in the EU.

Magnus G. Schoeller is a researcher at the Centre for European Integration Research (EIF), University of Vienna, Austria, and Research Associate at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies in Florence, Italy.

1.Introduction: Explaining Leadership in the Eurozone

1.1The Argument

1.2The Evidence

1.3The Method

1.4The Plan of the Book

2.Conceptualizing Leadership: What It Is and Why It Matters

2.1The Basic Ingredients: Power, Common Goal and Strategies

2.2Leadership and Success

2.3Two Conceptions of Leadership

2.4Defining Political Leadership

3.Theorizing Leadership: Emergence and Impact

3.1A Rational Theory of Political Leadership

3.2The Emergence of Political Leadership

3.3The Impact of Political Leadership

3.4Implications for the Empirical Research

4.Analysing Leadership I: Germany in the Eurozone Crisis

4.1No Leadership: The First Financial Assistance to Greece

4.2Failed Leadership: The Super-Commissioner

4.3Successful Leadership: The Fiscal Compact

5.Analysing Leadership II: The EU Institutions in the Eurozone Crisis

5.1No Leadership: The European Commission and Eurobonds

5.2Failed Leadership: The European Parliament and Eurobonds

5.3Successful Leadership: The European Central Bank and Outright Monetary Transactions

6.Evaluating Leadership: The Hard Case of the Eurozone

6.1Comparative Results 

6.2Leadership in the Eurozone: An Overview Assessment

7.Conclusions