ABSTRACT
The forerunners of the 28-member European Union were the European Coal and Steel Community (1952) and the European Economic Community (1957). Both had been established by six West European countries: France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. These six countries had been on the same playing field economically, for all were highly industrialized and were very close in GDP. Minus the smallest and most affluent member, Luxembourg, the average per capita income level of the founding countries in 1957 was $12,234 (about 10 percent higher than the United States’ $10,981); the richest (Germany) was only 7 percent higher, and the poorest (Italy) was 15 percent lower, than the average income. All these countries had somewhat similar cultural-historical backgrounds, hammered out by the Greek-Roman-Judeo-Christian, Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Romantic traditions. Some went through the Protestant revolution as well. All successfully industrialized during the nineteenth century and, after a great deal of political turbulence, emerged as strong pluralistic parliamentary democracies after the Second World War. These founding member countries, therefore, were Western states par excellence.
