The European Union in the 21st century - towards a social Europe?

Abstract

"At the beginning of the 21st century the future of ‘the welfare state’ is all but clear. The welfare state originated in West and North European countries in the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, the idea of the welfare state is facing three challenges: First, Western welfare states are under economic, demographic and political pressure to reform their institutions. In particular, reform is deemed necessary to meet the demands of increasingly competitive global markets. Second, social policy beyond the nation state is growing, with transnational actors like Worldbank, ILO, EU and OECD and transnational discourses. National welfare states are increasingly affected by such transnational social policy. While the Worldbank concentrates on developing and transitional countries, and the OECD is influentious in developed countries (Armingeon/Beyeler 2004), especially in education (Jakobi 2006), the EU is a unique supranational body of 25 European countries with broad and more binding legal powers. Third, while Western welfare states are in crisis, state social policy is expanding in non-Western countries. Some authors even speak of ‘new welfare states’ (Esping-Andersen 1996) and of the ‘Coming of East Asian welfare states’ modelled on Western patterns (Hort/Kuhnle 2000)." [author's abstract]