ABSTRACT
The picture of policies and politics in the five countries covered in the earlier chapters of this volume is of Europe in hard times. The impact of the worst economic recession since the thirties is pervasive. In the Europe of the early eighties there are no unambiguous success stories. Within each country at least one economic indicator gives cause for concern. Even Germany, whose economy weathered the seventies relatively successfully, is now faced with a disturbingly high level of unemployment. Sweden may have kept its unemployment well below the European average but only at high cost to its exchequer; and it remains afflicted by a higher than average inflation rate. Relative success, moreover, is small comfort to governments having to cope with the domestic consequences of low growth. Shared pain is still pain, and pain thresholds differ. The relativities which trouble governments in traditionally successful economies concern present economic performance compared to past experience rather than to other countries’ current plight. Thus, in Germany, permanently anxious about the viability of its democratic institutions, fears about the politicl consequences of a fall from its post-war economic grace are particularly acute. A similar theme is touched on with regard to the implications of France’s economic frustrations for the still evolving and untested institutions of the Fifth Republic. On the other hand, the apparent tolerance of the British polity to the consequences of economic stagnation may be explained, partly at least, in terms of Britain’s long familiarity with economic failure.
