Toward a Neoliberal Europe?

Abstract

The authors argue that starting from a welfare state, based on specific assumptions regarding generations, gender, and labor markets, two extreme directions of possible development—toward privatization and toward solidarity—are currently being taken. European welfare reforms transfer many services, needs, and responsibilities to the market, examples of a neoliberal tendency. However, there is also a contrasting and striking development toward solidarity, based on extensive regulatory policies, examples of a neoetatistic tendency. Focusing on pension reforms, the authors analyze this twofold development which the authors observe in reform measures and discourses; it redefines social rights, and therefore transforms social identity and citizenship.