ABSTRACT
Historically, the first three decades of the postwar period can be characterised as periods of increasing economic growth and wealth, increasing international trade, urbanisation and technological innovations. In contrast, during the last three decades of the twentieth century dramatic changes in the existing economic, political and social-cultural fields took place in western European countries. The most visible change in the economic field was the emergence of a new economic order characterised by the spread of neo-liberal ideas and a deep belief in the superiority of the ‘market economy’, which resulted in increasing deregulation, privatisation and globalisation of economies. At the political level, European integration and the enlargement of the European Union were a direct result of the integration of West and East Germany, and the disintegration of the Soviet bloc opened the doors to former socialist countries to join the EU.
