Introduction

Two important aspects are insufficiently explored in the relevant scholarship. The first is the role played by the theories and discourses of competitiveness in the transformation of public policy-making, which is more often tackled from the point of view of economic and institutional constraints or of ideational change rooted in neo-liberal or thirdway ideas. The second is an explicit discussion of the variety of different, and often contradictory, ways in which the relationship between competitiveness and solidarity can be conceptualised in theory and embodied in practices. Competitiveness differentials between euro areas countries measured by current account balances, relative inflation rates, relative unit labour costs, or relative productivities obsessively dominated public discussion. European solidarity is routinely invoked in the discussion of existing European Union policies or of reform proposals in direct opposition to narrow national self-interest and egoism. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.