The welfare state in postwar Western Europe has been extended and
intensified in a spectacular manner. Today, "welfare" represents a
complex mix of services covering health, education, welfare, the
arts, leisure, and social security. Anton C. Zijderveld is of the
opinion that Europe's vast, comprehensive welfare state is becoming
leaner and meaner, heading down a more sober path toward
decentralization and deregulation, which only, but not merely,
secures order for its citizens and shields society's vulnerable. As
the millennium approaches, Zijderveld believes Europe is
experiencing a cultural renaissance and a socioeconomic and
political reformation in which the market will flourish and civil
society will prosper. The Waning of the Welfare State focuses on
the transformation of the welfare state in Europe over a
four-decade period. Zijderveld employs the democratic triangle
theoretical model, in which democracy is viewed as a system in
which state, market, and civil society are held in precious
balance. If one component supersedes the other two, democracy is
endangered. In its 1960s and 1970s heyday, the state took center
stage at the expense of the market and civil society; social
democracy was the prevailing ideology. In the 1980s the market
triumphed, often at the expense of both the state and civil
society; this was the decade of liberalism. Today, civil society
prevails, albeit at risk of being injurious to state and market.
Ideologically, this is the decade of conservatism. Zijderveld sees
a future "Americanization" of European social policy producing a
fortuitously balanced coalition of social democracy, liberalism,
and conservatism; a place where safety and order, prosperity and
economic participation, and social participation and meaningful
interactions flourish equally. This transformation carries many
risks. But it will, in the end, strengthen Europe's political,
economic, and sociocultural stamina. If it also draws the Atlantic
partners closer together, as Zijderveld believes it does, the
chances of another European communist, libertarian, or fascist
Gtterdommerung will remain remote. Zijderveld presents useful
concepts in a highly organized fashion. He has produced a very
important book for American readers who will, hopefully, discover,
beyond the often vast differences, some basic similarities of
structures and developments within the European welfare state.
General
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