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This book systematically analyzes how much European countries and the U.S. have in common and how much variation we find within the enlarged E.U. in central spheres of socio-economic and political life.
List of contents
- Introduction
- Jens Alber and Neil Gilbert
- Part I: State: Structure and Policy
- Section I. Democratic Functioning
- 1.: Democratic Quality in America and Europe. Stein Ringen
- 2.: Liberalism and Democracy in America Today. John Samples
- Section II. Political Integration
- 3.: The Inequality of Electoral Participation in Europe and America and the Politically Integrative Functions of the Welfare State. Jens Alber and Ulrich Kohler
- 4.: Income Inequality and Participation in United States Elections.Michael P. McDonald
- Section III. Patterns of Public Expenditure
- 5.: Patterns of State Expenditure in Europe and America. Francis G. Castles
- 6.: Comparative Analyses of Stateness and State Action: What Can We Learn From Patterns of Expenditure? Neil Gilbert
- Section IV. Citizenship and Welfare
- 7.: Concepts and Practices of Social Citizenship in Europe: The Case of Poverty and Income Support for the Poor. Chiara Saraceno
- 8.: The New American Model of Work-Conditioned Public Support. Rebecca M. Blank
- Part 2: Society: Conditions and Outcomes
- Section V. The Goal of Full Employment
- 9.: Welfare and Employment: a European Dilemma? Werner Eichhorst and Anton Hemerijck
- 10.: Fulfilling the Ballyhoo of a Peak Economy? The US Economic Model. Richard B. Freeman
- Section VI. Inequality and Mobility
- 11.: Egalitarianism versus Economic Dynamics? An Empirical Assessment of the Friedman Conjecture. Markus Gangl
- 13.: Are United States Inequality and Mobility Trends in the European Union's Future? Richard V. Burkhauser and Kenneth A. Couch
- Section VII. Educational Opportunity
- 13.: Education in Europe and the Lisbon Benchmarks Jutta Allmendinger, Christian Ebner, and Rita Nikolai
- 14.: The U.S. Educational System: Can it be a Model for Europe? Patricia Maloney and Karl Ulrich Mayer
- Section VIII. Immigrant Integration
- 15.: Different Countries, Different Groups, Same Mechanisms? The Structural Assimilation of the Second Generation in Europe (D, F, GB) and the U.S. Frank Kalter and Nadia Granato
- 16.: Immigration and Nativism in the United States and Europe: Demography and Globalization versus the Nation-State. Charles Hirschman, Anthony Daniel Perez
- Section IX Conclusion
- 17.: The Epistemology of Comparative Analyses: What Do We Know? Jens Alber, Neil Gilbert
About the author
Jens Alber is Professor of Sociology at the Free University of Berlin and Director of the Research Unit Inequality and Social Integration at the Social Science Center Berlin.
Neil Gilbert is Chernin Professor of Social Welfare at the School of Social Welfare, University of California at Berkeley, faculty leader of the Center for Comparative Family Welfare and Poverty Research, and was the Founding Director of the Family Welfare Research Group.
Summary
Since the advent of the European Union, politicians have increasingly emphasized the notion of a European social model as an alternative to the American form of market capitalism, which is seen as promoting economic growth without regard for solidarity and social progress. As this political discourse has advanced, social scientists and academic policy analysts have raised questions concerning the extent to which the E.U. and U.S. social models exist outside the minds of diplomats and politicians seeking to stitch together a common identity. How much unity is there still within Europe after the Eastern enlargements have considerably increased economic and cultural diversity? To whatever extent one might discern a distinct set of commonalities that represent the core of a European approach, how different are the European characteristics of social, economic, and political life from those of America?
Addressing these issues, this book systematically analyzes how much European countries and the United States have in common and how much variation we find within the enlarged European Union in eight central spheres of socio-economic and political life: employment, equality/mobility, educational opportunity, integration of immigrants, democratic functioning, political participation, rights to welfare, and levels of public spending. Drawing on empirical analyses by U.S. and European scholars who represent multi-disciplinary backgrounds, each of these topics is put under scrutiny. The results of this study illuminate points of convergence and divergence as seen from the perspectives of scholars from both sides of the Atlantic.
Additional text
[This book] can be read with profit by experts as well as those with a general interest in the subject.
