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Plausible as the idea of the United States of Europe as a peace arrangement may seem to some at first glance, it has on closer examination not the least thing in common with the method of thought and the standpoint of social democracy . . . At the present stage of development of the world market and of world economy, the conception of Europe as an isolated economic unit is a sterile concoction of the brain. Europe no more forms a special unit within world economy than does Asia or America.

Rosa Luxemburg#8

CapitalismPoliticsDevelopmentEconomyEuropeGeopoliticsGlobalization

About this quote

What does it mean?
Luxemburg argues that creating a unified Europe is economically impossible in the current global capitalist system, as Europe cannot exist as an isolated unit.
In plain terms
A united Europe cannot work because the world economy is too interconnected.
What can you take from it?
National or regional economic isolation is impractical in a global market.

Where it applies

  • economic policy debates
  • historical planning
  • international relations

Putting it to work

  • analyzing economic unity
  • critiquing regionalism
  • teaching economic history

Questions to consider

  • Can regional economic blocks succeed in a globalized world?
  • What limits exist for political unity?

Another view

Modern political movements often pursue regional unity despite these economic constraints.

More from Rosa Luxemburg

  1. The times when the centre of gravity of political development and the crystallising agent of capitalist contradictions lay on the European continent, are long …

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  2. The Utopianism of the standpoint which expects an era of peace and retrenchment of militarism in the present social order is plainly revealed in the fact that …

    Permalink to quote #7
  3. Freedom only for the members of the government, only for the members of the Party - though they are quite numerous - is no freedom at all. Freedom is always th…

    Permalink to quote #10

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