ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the issue of the social dimension of Europe and its uncertain prospects in the present context of crisis. In the first part I look at Europe by focusing on the fabric of principles and norms that have fostered the various histories of the welfare states and the constellations of motives that have combined to animate them. It is certainly not my intention to give an exhaustive account of all the complex issues involved; even less do I intend to celebrate the past in a nostalgic vein. The fact is that remembering the ideas in which the welfare state has its roots helps us understand the scope of our present problems and what is at stake in the erosion of Europe’s social dimension. In the second part and on this basis, I sketch the parabola of the European social model, pointing out the greater subordination of the social to the economic.
