Unemployment in the New Europe

This book examines the consequences and interconnections between unemployment and European unification.

Nancy Bermeo (Edited by)

9780521802413, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 August 2001

376 pages, 24 b/w illus. 51 tables
23 x 15.3 x 3 cm, 0.65 kg

'This collection of articles addresses an important political and academic question for Europe - the causes of and solutions to widespread unemployment … Unemployment in the New Europe offers a solid theoretical, economic, and political analysis of European unemployment … the quality of scholarship is excellent.' Journal of Contemporary European studies

The movement for European integration has yielded a European Union of fifteen states with a unified monetary system that will eventually embrace over 370 million people. If current trends continue, an average of one in ten of these people will be unemployed. Not surprisingly, the European public ranks joblessness among its primary political concerns. This book focuses on both unemployment and economic unification. It examines the consequences of each and their interconnections. With chapters on the policy implications of European union, on current workings of domestic bargaining institutions and on how unemployment affects political behavior, this book yields a message with important policy implications: the organized managed economies of Europe should be reformed but not replaced, and a united Europe should be wary of modeling itself on the United States.

Introduction Nancy Bermeo
Part I. Macroeconomic Contexts and Models: 1. Unemployment, job creation and economic and monetary union David Cameron
2. Organized market economies and unemployment in Europe: is it finally time to accept liberal orthodoxy? Peter Hall
3. Globalization, welfare states and employment: is there a European 'third way'? Martin Rhodes
Part II. Unemployment and Domestic Bargaining Institutions: Challenging Some Myths: 4. Labor decline and wage growth in the advanced capitalist countries, 1965–93 Bruce Western and Kieran Healey
5. Unemployment and union destiny Lyle Scruggs and Peter Lange
Part III. Unemployment and Domestic Bargaining Institutions: Examining Three Cases: 6. Unemployment and trade union strength in Portugal Alan Stoleroff
7. Trade unions, unemployment, and working class fragmentation in Spain Andrew Richards and Javier Polavieja
8. Modell Nederland: social partnership and competitive corporatism in the Netherlands Steven B. Wolinetz
Part IV. Unemployment, Voting, and Political Behavior: 9. Desperate times call for desperate measures? Unemployment and voter behavior in comparative perspective Christopher Anderson
10. The politics of unemployment: the Spanish experience in comparative perspective José Maria Maravall and Marta Fraile
Conclusion
11. Unemployment, the New Europe, and the old iniquities Nancy Bermeo.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Regional studies [GTB]