TY - JOUR
T1 - Revisiting the European social model(s) debate
T2 - challenges and prospects
AU - Whyman, Philip
AU - Baimbridge, Mark
AU - Mullen, Andrew
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - One of the distinctive features of the post-war process of European economic and political integration is the debate about the emergence of a European Social Model (ESM). Advocates and critics have clashed over the precise meaning of the ESM concept, whether it exists in a meaningful and singular form, and whether it challenges or bolsters – by providing some sort of discursive justification – the current neoliberal trajectory of the European Union (EU). While some of the claimed elements of the ESM do exist/have been adopted, this article argues that they do not constitute a coherent alternative to the dominant market liberal model and bias towards negative integration that has underpinned the EU since the 1980s. Furthermore, contemporary developments have served to further entrench these tendencies at the expense of progressive social forces that seek to construct a genuine ESM.
AB - One of the distinctive features of the post-war process of European economic and political integration is the debate about the emergence of a European Social Model (ESM). Advocates and critics have clashed over the precise meaning of the ESM concept, whether it exists in a meaningful and singular form, and whether it challenges or bolsters – by providing some sort of discursive justification – the current neoliberal trajectory of the European Union (EU). While some of the claimed elements of the ESM do exist/have been adopted, this article argues that they do not constitute a coherent alternative to the dominant market liberal model and bias towards negative integration that has underpinned the EU since the 1980s. Furthermore, contemporary developments have served to further entrench these tendencies at the expense of progressive social forces that seek to construct a genuine ESM.
U2 - 10.3917/eufor.372.0008
DO - 10.3917/eufor.372.0008
M3 - Article
VL - 372
SP - 8
JO - L'Europe en Formation
JF - L'Europe en Formation
IS - 2
ER -