Europe's Promise: Why the European Way Is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age

by Steven Hill

Overview

A quiet revolution has been occurring in post-World War II Europe. A world power has emerged across the Atlantic that is recrafting the rules for how a modern society should provide economic security, environmental sustainability, and global stability. In Europe's Promise, Steven Hill explains Europe's bold new vision. For a decade Hill traveled widely to understand this uniquely European way of life. He shatters myths and shows how Europe's leadership manifests in five major areas: economic strength, with Europe now the world's wealthiest trading bloc, nearly as large as the U.S. and China combined; the best health care and other workfare supports for families and individuals; widespread use of renewable energy technologies and conservation; the world's most advanced democracies; and regional networks of trade, foreign aid, and investment that link one-third of the world to the European Union. Europe's Promise masterfully conveys how Europe has taken the lead in this make-or-break century challenged by a worldwide economic crisis and global warming.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520261372
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	01/19/2010
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	488
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Steven Hill is Director of the Political Reform Program for the New America Foundation and author of 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy and other books on politics. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Salon.com, TheNation, International Herald Tribune, The Guardian, Prospect, and many other publications and websites.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: A Quiet Revolution

Part One. Social Capitalist Europe
1. The Rise of the European Way
2. The Capitalist Engine That Huffed and Puffed . . .
3. Europe's Secret Advantage: Economic Democracy
4. Family Values, European Style
5. The Myth of the Overtaxed European and Other Modern Fables
6. The Economic Crash of 2008-9: Wall Street Capitalism vs. Social Capitalism

Part Two. Healthy Europe
7. The European Way of Health
8. La Santé d'abord: The Formal Health Care System

Part Three. Sustainable Europe
9. Windmills, Tides, and Solar Besides: The European Way of Energy
10. Revolution on Wheels: The European Way of Transportation

Part Four. Global Europe
11. The Reluctant Superpower: Transatlantic Rupture and the Post-9/11 World
12. The European Way of Foreign Policy, Put to the Test

Part Five. Pluralist Europe
13. The Legacy of Luther and Cromwell: Political Democracy in Europe
14. Consensus Building through Dynamic Democracy

Part Six. The Concept of “Europe”
15. Sticky Glue, Social Contracts, and Fulcrum Institutions

Part Seven. Will Europe Survive?
16. The Challenges of Immigration and Integration
17. A European Civil Rights Movement Arises-Sort Of
18. The Dilemma of Population Decline: “Where are all the children?”

Conclusion: The Make or Break Century
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Timely and provocative. Europe's Promise explains why in most areas, it is Europe's constitutional forms, economic regulations, and social values, not those of the United States, that are the most popular models for new democracies. The oldest one should take note."—Foreign Affairs

"Hill is a lucid and engaging writer. He makes you sit up and think. He is surely right in saying that Europe's prosperous, peaceful and democratic social market economy looks attractive when contrasted with the unbalanced, excessively deregulated US model or with China's politically repressive capitalism."—Financial Times

"Europe's Promise" marshals an impressive army of facts and comparative statistics to show that the United States is behind Europe in nearly every socio-economic category that can be measured and that neither America's trickle-down, Wall Street-driven capitalism nor China's state capitalism hold the keys to the future." —Reuters News Agency

"An engrossing book. . . . Hill has a gift for capturing cogent themes in a single image. . . . Steven Hill examines the evolving trajectory since World War II of Europe's 'fulcrum institutions' on which their societies pivot, and discovers rich contrast to the ruinous feuding of Republicans and Democrats here."—Providence Journal

"Breezily written and well-documented . . . To anyone wondering whether by 2099 the current era will be viewed as a second 'American Century,' Hill's warnings are worth considering. If the competitive advantages he ably enumerates continue to evolve in Europe's favor, the claim to the century may well cross the Atlantic."—America: the National Catholic Weekly

Editorial Reviews

What to make of this dazzling Opus? The analysis offers some fresh perspective on the European and American systems…The book fills gaps in information about Europe and at the same time act as a manifesto for a fundamentally different America.

Internationale Politik

An important new book from Berkeley's worthy UC Press.

Inside Bay Area / Oakland Tribune - Bill Mann

"Europe’s Promise" marshals an impressive army of facts and comparative statistics to show that the United States is behind Europe in nearly every socio-economic category that can be measured and that neither America’s trickle-down, Wall Street-driven capitalism nor China’s state capitalism hold the keys to the future."

Reuters News Agency - Bernd Debusmann

“Breezily written and well-documented . . . To anyone wondering whether by 2099 the current era will be viewed as a second ‘American Century,’ Hill’s warnings are worth considering. If the competitive advantages he ably enumerates continue to evolve in Europe’s favor, the claim to the century may well cross the Atlantic.

America: The National Catholic Weekly - Cecilio Morales

What to make of this dazzling Opus? The analysis offers some fresh perspective on the European and American systems…The book fills gaps in information about Europe and at the same time act as a manifesto for a fundamentally different America.

Ícaro|Ícaro|Ícaro|Internationale Politik

An engrossing book. . . . Hill has a gift for capturing cogent themes in a single image. . . . Steven Hill examines the evolving trajectory since World War II of Europe’s ‘fulcrum institutions’ on which their societies pivot, and discovers rich contrast to the ruinous feuding of Republicans and Democrats here.

Providence Journal - Anne Grant

Europe’s promise is in many ways a provocative and exuberant book.

Insight Turkey - Teija Tiilikainen

A comprehensive analysis of Europe aimed at engaging the American public in a dialogue about the transformative achievements of the old continent. A very-well written discussion, substantiated by a wealth of reference material and dotted with personal anecdotes.

Choice - A. E. Wohlers

Hill is a lucid and engaging writer. He makes you sit up and think. He is surely right in saying that Europe’s prosperous, peaceful and democratic social market economy looks attractive when contrasted with the unbalanced, excessively deregulated US model or with China's politically repressive capitalism.

Financial Times - Tony Barber

Breezily written and well-documented . . . To anyone wondering whether by 2099 the current era will be viewed as a second ‘American Century,’ Hill’s warnings are worth considering. If the competitive advantages he ably enumerates continue to evolve in Europe’s favor, the claim to the century may well cross the Atlantic.

Cecilio Morales: The National Catholic Weekly

"Timely and provocative. Europe's Promise explains why in most areas, it is Europe's constitutional forms, economic regulations, and social values, not those of the United States, that are the most popular models for new democracies. The oldest one should take note."

Foreign Affairs - Andrew Moravcsik

There are vital lessons in Europe’s Promise from which America could benefit. . . . Hill is able to explain how and why Europe works and therefore, may galvanize Americans to look in the mirror and make some changes.

Vienna Review Of Books - Joseph David Rollwagen & Justin McCauley