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National or European Social Models? Contesting European Welfare Futures

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Book cover The European Union and World Politics

Abstract

This chapter looks at the changing nature of’ social Europe’, analysing Europe’s social models and their relationship with the Lisbon agenda of ‘competitive Europe’ within the European political economy. The discursive framing of the interactions between domestic welfare politics and European economic governance is situated in relation to the ‘European social model’ (ESM). For policy elites within the EU, the ESM was a crucial and ‘central organising concept’ throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s.1 It continues to play a significant role in the 21st century, first within the Lisbon process and more recently in the context of ‘Lisbon II’. Yet the ESM, a convenient organising concept that encompasses (perhaps conceals) a forbiddingly complex reality, continues to defy clear definition.

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Notes and References

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Authors
  1. Ben Clift
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cambridge, UK

    Andrew Gamble (Professor of Politics) & David Lane (Fellow of Emmanuel College) (Professor of Politics) &  (Fellow of Emmanuel College)

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© 2009 Ben Clift

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Clift, B. (2009). National or European Social Models? Contesting European Welfare Futures. In: Gamble, A., Lane, D. (eds) The European Union and World Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230246188_11

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