United in Diversity?: Comparing Social Models in Europe and America

Since the advent of the European Union, politicians have increasingly emphasized the notion of a European social model as an alternative to the American form of market capitalism, which is seen as promoting economic growth without regard for solidarity and social progress. As this political discourse has advanced, social scientists and academic policy analysts have raised questions concerning the extent to which the E.U. and U.S. social models exist outside the minds of diplomats and politicians seeking to stitch together a common identity. How much unity is there still within Europe after the Eastern enlargements have considerably increased economic and cultural diversity? To whatever extent one might discern a distinct set of commonalities that represent the core of a European approach, how different are the European characteristics of social, economic, and political life from those of America? Addressing these issues, this book systematically analyzes how much European countries and the United States have in common and how much variation we find within the enlarged European Union in eight central spheres of socio-economic and political life: employment, equality/mobility, educational opportunity, integration of immigrants, democratic functioning, political participation, rights to welfare, and levels of public spending. Drawing on empirical analyses by U.S. and European scholars who represent multi-disciplinary backgrounds, each of these topics is put under scrutiny. The results of this study illuminate points of convergence and divergence as seen from the perspectives of scholars from both sides of the Atlantic.

About the Author :
Jens Alber is Professor of Sociology at the Free University of Berlin and Director of the Research Unit Inequality and Social Integration at the Social Science Center Berlin. Neil Gilbert is Chernin Professor of Social Welfare at the School of Social Welfare, University of California at Berkeley, faculty leader of the Center for Comparative Family Welfare and Poverty Research, and was the Founding Director of the Family Welfare Research Group.

Review :
"This book provides an outstanding example of comparative studies at their best. A fine collection of top-notch essays."--Amitai Etzioni, author of New Common Ground "...It is rare that a compilation of essays tackles so important a set of topics so successfully. Indeed, collectively the essays here amount to an extensive and profound meditation on the state of the western world and the divergences and rifts within it."--Peter Baldwin, Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles "Are the United States and Europe on diverging trajectories? Jens Alber and Neil Gilbert have compiled an excellent collection of studies on commonalities and variations between European societies and the United States. The volume includes theoretically informed comparative analyses of characteristics of the state, democracy and social citizenship, and of selected policy outcomes, and represents a timely and inspiring contribution to an understanding of how the present-day American and European societies are developing."--Stein Kuhnle, Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen and Professor of Comparative Social Policy, Hertie School of Governance "Unity in Diversity? is both successor and 21st century antithesis to Werner Sombart's 1906 Why is There No Socialism in the United States?, which called attention to the lack of a major American socialist movement and challenged generations of social scientists to compare political and social well-being in the United States and Europe. The chapters collected here compare contemporary democracy, electoral participation, public expenditure patterns, poverty, employment, social mobility, educational opportunity, and immigration, finding at least as much similarity as difference. Alber and Gilbert conclude-at the start of a global economic crisis-the two sides of the Atlantic may now well be united by common goals, achieved to different degrees by marginally different means."--Stephan Leibfried, Professor of Public and Social Policy, University of Bremen "The edited volume by Alber and Gilbert is a compilation of excellent essays written by leading scholars who provide a contemporary contribution to a question that has fascinated scholars for centuries. This book is a must read!" -- International Journal of Social Welfare