ABSTRACT
In Western Europe, the nation-state has withstood the massive removal of political confidence, the challenge to the social order of "consumer capitalism" and the "desacralization" of the state, manifest in France in 1968, and to a lesser extent in Italy and in some sectors of West Germany. While no West European government has succeeded in overcoming what is quite clearly a major and protracted capitalist crisis, three features stand out. A precondition for the reconstruction of political philosophy may well be a better understanding of contemporary society, i.e., a more sophisticated empirical sociological theory. The grand theory which had been, implicitly Jean Monnet's and, explicitly, Ernst Haas's, has performed much better as an initial goad than as a permanent explanation. The theory also overlooked the differential impact, on the various nations, of external countries. Equally positive has been the definite evolution and rapprochement of foreign policy objectives.
