ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter explores the retrenchment of Western Europe’s social models (i.e. welfare states) and the emergence of the ESM concept and the Social Europe discourse in the context of the NWO. The chapter draws upon the CPE tradition, which utilizes a comprehensive set of analytical and conceptual tools to identify a diverse range of explanatory factors which orthodox approaches tend to ignore. Put simply, it situates the retrenchment of Western Europe’s welfare states and the emergence of the ESM concept and the Social Europe discourse within a specific ‘historical structure’ (Cox, 1996): the NWO. By attending to the nature of the capitalist system during this epoch, the historical specificities of this era and the global configuration of social forces during this period, it seeks to chart a new course for the study of these formations and ideas. The chapter does not advance a CPE-inspired conceptual and/or theoretical exposition of the retrenchment of Western Europe’s welfare states and the emergence of the ESM concept and the Social Europe discourse, within the context of European integration and the NWO, as such work has been initiated elsewhere.1 Instead, it seeks to identify the dominant actors and structures, often neglected by the existing literature, which both shaped and constrained these formations and ideas during the NWO. The chapter advances four main arguments. First, that the nature and trajectory of Western Europe’s welfare states, the ESM concept and the Social Europe discourse were the product of the struggle between social forces at the national, European and global levels in the NWO. Second, that the continued deployment of US power in Europe influenced this struggle. Third, that Western Europe’s welfare states, the ESM concept and the Social Europe discourse were shaped by, and, equally importantly, constrained by, the structure of the World Order in this period. Fourth, that the retrenchment of Western Europe’s welfare states and the failure to create a unified EU-level welfare state in their place has fatally undermined the ESM concept and the dream, held by many social democratic and socialist political parties, trade unions and other progressive social forces, of constructing a Social Europe. The chapter is divided into four main sections. The first section reviews the three main debates about the welfare state, the ESM concept and the Social
Europe discourse during this period: the impact of globalization and EU enlargement, the existence of welfare state convergence towards retrenchment, and the emergence of a single and distinctive ESM. In an attempt to enrich the existing literature, the second, third and fourth sections look at the broader economic and political context within which these formations and ideas have developed. More specifically, the second section focuses upon the transformation of the World Order from the 1960s, which laid the foundations for the NWO. The third section, which utilizes official and leaked state planning documents and longneglected studies, seeks to show how the struggle between social forces in the NWO influenced the nature and trajectory of Western Europe’s welfare states, the ESM concept and the Social Europe discourse. Having discussed the weaknesses of the existing literature and having identified the key events and processes that engendered the NWO, the fourth section – which draws upon the CPE tradition summarized in Chapter 3 – contributes to the aforementioned debates by investigating the impact of the structure of the World Order on Western Europe’s welfare states, the ESM concept and the Social Europe discourse. In short, this chapter presents a political economy of these formations and ideas during the NWO.
