"Getting the Core: The Union's Monetary Institution-Building in the 90"

...this paper...will limit itself to presenting a succinct description of the process of monetary union as is outlined in the Maastricht Treaty, formulating and evaluating two of many stylized explanations for its unexpected approval in 1991, and finally some significant findings relating to macroeconomic adjustments to theories of international cooperation and political reputation will be analyzed. The paper challenges the predminant realist explanation that monetary union comes out of the interest of some continental members to limit the rising German hegemony (Sandholtz, 1993; De Grauwe, 1993). By considering the convergence criteria as a standard- setting and targeting exercise, it stresses both the commitment of well off-countries to embark on monetary unification, and the choice of reluctant countries to get the core as the combined result pf systemic level pressures and discriminatory threats. In support of this thesis, the paper analyzes the formation of the core standards as the result of the "institutional hegemony" of the German Bundesbank.