Columbia International Affairs Online

CIAO DATE: 9/07

European Journal of Social Quality

Volume 6, Number 1 (May 2006)

Articles

• Social Quality in Rousseau
  Paule-Monique Vernes

  The main ideas of Rousseau relevant to social quality are reviewed here with reference to many of his books and essays. A central theme in Rousseau’s work is connected to the evils of inequality where the poor endure their servitude in the name of an illusory common good. The social problem of inequality relates to the political problem of freedom. The social contract requires that the gap between rich and poor be as small as possible; that there is aristocratic government; and that ‘the general will’ combines the requirement for community with respect for individuality. The article finishes with a discussion of spatial aspects of Rousseau’s work relevant to social quality, including the notion of the garden city.

• Social Quality – Opening Individual Well-Being for a Social Perspective
  Peter Herrmann

  The article presents the application of the Social Quality Approach in order to develop a clear understanding of the European Social Model. For this Social Quality is understood as both a normative approach and an analytical tool. The article allows an insight into the actual meaning of the statement frequently made that the course of European integration falls short when it comes to social policy. The problem, however, is not the lack of responsibility for social policy. Rather, the author emphasises that the real problem is the specific interpretation of the social.

  Ní haon maith a bheith ag caoineadh nuair a imíonn an tsochraid (Irish proverb)

• Covenants, External Effects and Employability
  Ton Korver and Peter R.A. Oeij

  Employability is on the agenda. Yet, we lack the institutional structures and mechanisms to effectively promote it. Most of our labour instititutions are at the national level on the one hand, on the industrial and company level on the other hand. Collective bargaining, for example, is typically geared to industries and companies. For the interindustrial or intersectoral levels we have some national forums, but no effective intermediate institutions and mechanisms. In our view, the phenomenon of the covenant may fill the gap. Covenants are an effective way of combining the public interest in enhanced employability, and the collective interests of employers and employees in an adequate, educated and ‘empowered’ labour force. Against the background of the needs of a ‘knowledge economy’ and the underinvestment in skills, in particular due to a one-sided ‘flexibility’ of the labour market, we first sketch the ambitions of the EU, and the present state and the shortcomings of the training efforts in the economy. Next, we explain what the covenant stands for, what its promises are for triggering more training and strengthening employability, and what role the critical issue of trusting co-operation is expected to play.

• Exporting or Pulling Down? The European Social Model and Eastern Enlargement of the EU
  Gábor Juhász

  This paper hypothesises that public support for the economic and political transformation in east-central Europe in 1989 was fuelled by enthusiasm for the reception of the (west) European Social Model, where the capitalist mode of production was combined with a high degree of social protection. In the first part of the article the author identifies the basic values of and the challenges to the European Social Model. Them he analyses the impact of the European Union on the transformation of east-central European social policy in the 1990s, and concludes that the negotiations concerning the accession of post-communist east-central European countries to the EU hardly contributed to the reception of the core values of the European Social Model in the new member states. Giving an overview of he social situation in the accession countries, the third part of the article calls the reader’s attention to the alarming differences regarding the quality of life between the EU Fifteen and the new member states. In the final part, the author raises questions about the European Union’s capacity to preserve the European Social Model, taking reactions of the members states to post-enlargement fears of social gaps between the east and west of Europe into consideration.

• Convergence in Social Welfare Systems: From Evidence to Explanations
  Denis Bouget

  After the Second World War, the view that people of every nation would be entitled to experience rising standards of living pervaded all corners of the globe. Convergence was seen as a positive way of achieving a Golden Age and a peaceful and affluent utopia, through modernisation and technical progress. Within this general belief, the development of national social welfare systems in Europe in the postwar period appears to be the outcome of autonomous national processes. The construction of Europe, which imposed common rules in many areas, was nonetheless consistent with the national development of social welfare systems within each national culture. The idea of a common system of social protection has always been linked to European political and economic construction, which was expected to create a more cohesive society. Reference is made constantly to convergence as a catching-up process in the comparative evaluation of national social policies, but the implementation of an ambitious European system of social protection and the creation of harmonised national welfare systems have always proved to be impossible. The paper focuses on two specific topics. Firstly, it examines attempts to quantify convergence among EU and OECD countries at the macro-economic level, using social indicators to assess the convergence or divergence of social expenditure. The evidence of convergence is shown to be ambiguous due to a number of methodological problems. Secondly, two main interpretations of convergence are examined: economic forces and legal frameworks. The paper shows that the analysis of national trajectories of social expenditure and the link with economic development can enrich the analysis of convergence or divergence in social protection. Even if the maturation or reform of national social policies explains the origins of increases in social expenditure, macro-economic pressures, or constraints (globalisation, Single Market), on public expenditure can fuel certain type of convergence. In all the developed countries, social welfare systems are based on national legal frameworks. A goal of social Europe is not only to work towards European or divergence in social protection. Even if the maturation or reform of national social policies explains the origins of increases in social expenditure, macro-economic pressures, or constraints (globalisation, Single Market), on public expenditure can fuel certain type of convergence. In all the developed countries, social welfare systems are based on national legal frameworks. A goal of social Europe is not only to work towards European solidarity but also to build common social rights throughout Europe. Convergence of national social welfare systems can, therefore, be interpreted as a component in a general process of convergence in law within the developed countries, especially within Europe. However, common explanations of convergence in social welfare systems often neglect elements of divergence. They, therefore, conceal the complexity of the process and very often underestimate the full extent of divergence.

• Uniting Europeans by Values: A Feasible Enterprise?
  Jan Berting

  The draft-Constitution of the European Union mentions several values on which the Union is based. The status of these values is rather ambiguous, as the Constitution speaks about ‘values’, about ‘developing common values’ and about values which are common to all nation-states. Strangely enough, in the political debates that followed the presentation of the draft-Constitution, the specific role of values in the making of the EU was not elucidated. These debates show us a rather muddled state of affairs. Six different themes can be distinguished that are interrelated in complex ways. The debate about (common) values must not be separated from a thorough analysis of the concepts of modernity, of modernisation and of globalisation. This implies that we have to take into account the longstanding opposition between tradition and modernity. But more important than this is the dissection of three interconnected major tensions which are inherent to modernisation. These are the tensions and conflicts between rationality/ rationalisation and individual autonomy, between rationality and historicism, and between reason and sentiment. In our modern society people are reacting in sometimes very different ways to these societal tensions. In contrast to the generally accepted idea that ‘individualism’ is developing rapidly, it can be shown that ‘collectivism’ is far from fading away in the process of modernisation. Society seems to break in splinters. My conclusion is not that common values have lost their impact on social life. Nevertheless, they have to be related to the major processes of social, economic and cultural change and to be re-interpreted in the light of this analysis as elements of value configurations.