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Abstract:
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 EU and US 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?
Contents:
Introduction - Jens Alber and Neil Gilbert
Part 1: 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
12. 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 US - 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
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