Resurrecting ‘Welfare Europe'

In the midst of prolonged economic stagnation and worsening social polarization, the EU continues to cling to the policies of austerity and market-based growth. Not even stratospheric unemployment levels in Spain, or alarming accounts of malnourished Greek children, has led to any substantial reorientation of economic or social policy at the European level. Perhaps this requires some explanation. Despite conventional historiographical assumptions, postwar European cooperation was not exclusively rationalized around the integration of markets, or the construction of a permanent Franco-German peace.  Many of the initial strategies for regional government were based on the need to rehabilitate war-battered societies, propel economic modernization, and foster political stability. This meant imagining Europe, in part, as a machinery of welfare (broadly conceived).      

Drawing on examples from the OEEC, ECSC and EEC (1947-1967), I will utilize this configuration of postwar Europe to provide a new perspective for interpreting contemporary Europe. This will not mean viewing the postwar era through the lens of nostalgia. Rather, my intent is to raise a set of provocative questions concerning how European government was strategized and practiced in this not-so-distant-history, and use these to speak to the lack of ‘active’ social policy and economic planning in the EU today. What are the possibilities for resurrecting a welfarist ethos for Europe? Could it coexist with the ongoing policies of neoliberal consolidation? What might be the long-term effects of a ‘union’ that refuses to prioritize the needs, aspirations and economic security of Europeans?