ABSTRACT
On any balanced view, the success of Europe in the period of postwar expansion was supported by social settlements-in a variety of national forms-that allowed equity and efficiency to feed positively off one another. This constructive commingling of economic and social structures propelled the rapid modernisation of European society. The main argument of this book is that the employment relations institutions and processes associated with this model of development are under strain. On the one hand, they are implicated in the generally unimpressive economic record of Europe during the past two decades or more: they suffer from a crisis of economic functionality. On the other hand, they are increasingly out of line with new emerging patterns of economic and social life. In present form, they are unable to operate as mediating mechanisms to interlock social and economic structures positively. Thus, economic citizenship in Europe is at once suffering from the problems of economic functionality and social coherence.
