After World War II, most of West, South, and North Europe strengthened their commitment to the expansion of political freedoms. This transition was most pronounced in Germany, where a new post-war constitution gave strong protections to political freedoms in an effort to make the authoritarianism of Nazi Germany impossible in the future. A similar post-war constitution was drawn up in Italy.

In several other parts of Europe, the expansion of political freedoms came later, or was compromised by violence. Spain remained a dictatorship until 1975, and Portugal formally democratized only after a revolution related to decolonization in Africa in 1974 (Figure 4.18D). Until the late 1990s, Northern Ireland had sectarian violence between Catholics and Protestants so severe that free and fair elections were not possible (see Figure 4.18C). Central Europe did not significantly expand political freedoms until the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 as its former satellites declared independence, one by one. Yugoslavia, a large Communist republic in southern Central Europe, always firmly outside the Soviet bloc, also dissolved beginning in the early 1990s. There the growth of political freedoms was hampered by a powerful wave of ethnic xenophobia and violence (see Figure 4.18A, B).

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the European Union expanded into Central Europe, transforming the region and setting the stage for future expansions that could reach well beyond the borders of Europe as it is currently defined.

As early as the 1980s, Soviet control over Central Europe began to falter in the face of a workers’ rebellion in Poland, known as Solidarity. By 1990, East Germany had reunited with West Germany. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought the collapse of many economic and political relationships in Central Europe. Thousands of workers lost their jobs. In some of the poorest countries, including Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia, social turmoil and organized crime threatened stability. Membership in the European Union became especially attractive to Central European political leaders and citizens who thought it would spur economic development for them that would be a result of investment by the wealthier EU member countries in West and North Europe. 90. POLES CELEBRATE THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF SOLIDARITY

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Standards for EU membership, however, are rather demanding and specific. A country must have both political stability and a democratically elected government. Each country has to adjust its constitution to EU standards that guarantee the rule of law, human rights, and respect for minorities. Each must also have a functioning market economy that is open to investment by foreign-owned companies and that has well-controlled banks. Finally, farms and industries must comply with strict regulations governing the finest details of their products and the health of environments. Meeting these requirements has been a challenge for members such as Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary.

Two very wealthy countries chose not to join the European Union: Switzerland and Norway. They, plus Iceland, have long treasured their neutral role in world politics. Moreover, they were concerned about losing control over their domestic affairs. Iceland has now applied to join the European Union, primarily for financial security. During the recession that in Europe began in 2008, Iceland lost enormous wealth, in large part because of banking speculation in foreign markets. Iceland also became very indebted to the International Monetary Fund.

Several countries on the perimeter of Europe are candidate EU countries. In addition to Iceland, they include Turkey, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. The prospect of Turkey joining the EU is especially complex. Turkey has strained relations with the island country of Cyprus (which was admitted to the European Union in 2004), and Turkey has a history of human rights violations against minorities (especially against its large Kurdish population). There are also issues regarding the separation of religion and state. Turkey would be the first majority Muslim country to join the European Union. Turkey itself has some reservations. Its economy over the last decade has grown faster than the EU average, leading some to question the need to join the EU at all. Moreover, Turkey’s political advantage may lie not in Europe but as a leader in the Middle East. Since the revolutions collectively referred to as the Arab Spring, and during the crisis in Syria (see Chapter 6), Turkey has been a voice of calm and reason, despite its somewhat heavy-handed response to a wave of Arab Spring–type protests that took place in Turkey in 2013.

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A few other countries—Ukraine, Moldova,andperhapseventheCaucasian republics (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia)—may at some time be invited to join. However, there is strong opposition to this within Europe, and Europe’s huge and potentially powerful neighbor, Russia, opposes the expansion of the European Union into what it considers its sphere of influence. 93. EU TELLS TURKEY TO DEEPEN REFORMS

Somewhat similar to the United States, the European Union has one executive branch and two legislative bodies. The European Commission acts like an executive branch of government, proposing new laws and implementing decisions. Each of the 28 member states gets one commissioner, who is appointed for a 5-year term, subject to the approval of the European Parliament. Commissioners are expected to uphold common interests and not those of their own countries. The entire commission must resign if censured by Parliament. The European Commission also includes about 25,000 civil servants who work in Brussels to administer the European Union on a day-to-day basis.

EU citizens directly elect the European Parliament. Each country elects a proportion of seats based on its population, much like the U.S. House of Representatives. The Parliament elects the president of the European Commission, who serves for 2½ years as a head of state and head of foreign policy. Laws must be passed in Parliament by 55 percent of the member states, which must contain 65 percent of the EU total population. In other words, a simple majority does not rule. The Council of the European Union is similar to the U.S. Senate in that it is the more powerful of the two legislative bodies. However, its members are not elected but consist of one minister of government from each EU country.

A new role for the European Union as a global peacemaker and peacekeeper is developing through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which is based in Europe. During the Cold War, European and North American countries cooperated militarily through NATO to counter the influence of the Soviet Union. NATO originally included the United States, Canada, the countries of western Europe, and Turkey; it now includes almost all the EU countries as well.

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, NATO has focused mainly on providing the international security and cooperation needed to expand the European Union. When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, most EU members opposed the war. As worldwide opposition to the United States built, the global status of the European Union rose. Thereafter, with the United States preoccupied in Iraq and Afghanistan, NATO and the EU assumed more of a role as a global peacekeeper. For example, NATO forces fought off attempts by pirates to seize merchant ships during the 2009 Somali pirate crisis off the northeast coast of Africa, and undertook a number of operations in the Mediterranean related to the Arab Spring in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Syria.

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96. CONCERN OVER COMMON VALUES AT THE U.S.–EU SUMMIT

97. NATO LEADERS, PUTIN MEET IN BUCHAREST

In nearly all European countries, tax-supported systems of social welfare or social protection (the EU term) provide all citizens with basic health care; free or low-cost higher education; affordable housing; old age, survivor, and disability benefits; and generous unemployment and pension benefits. These systems developed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and were broadly expanded in the post–World War II era that coincided with more protection of political freedoms. In recent decades, the cost of European welfare systems has become a political issue in some countries as economies have had slower growth rates and more unemployment.

Europeans generally pay much higher taxes than North Americans (the rate for EU countries is about 40 percent of GDP; for the United States, 27 percent; and for Canada, 30 percent); in return, they expect more in terms of services. In some cases, European governments are able to deliver services more cheaply than the so-called free market does elsewhere. For example, the European Union spends on average about $3000 per person for health care, while the United States spends more than $7000. Even at this much lower cost, the European Union has more doctors, more acute-care hospital beds per citizen, and better outcomes than the United States in terms of life expectancy and infant mortality.

European welfare systems can be classified into four basic categories (Figure 4.19). Social democratic welfare systems, common in Scandinavia, are the most generous systems. They attempt to create equality across gender and class lines by providing extensive health care, education, housing, and child and elder care benefits to all citizens from cradle to grave. Child care is widely available, in part to help women enter the labor market. But early childhood training, a key feature of this system, is also meant to ensure that in adulthood every citizen will be able to contribute to the best of his or her capability, and that citizens will not develop criminal behavior or abuse drugs. While finding comparable data is very difficult, surveys of crime victims in Scandinavia and the European Union show that the crime rate in Scandinavia is generally lower than in other parts of Europe.

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The goal of conservative and modest welfare systems is to provide a minimum standard of living for all citizens. These systems are common in the countries of West Europe. The state assists those in need but does not try to assist upward mobility. For example, college education is free or heavily subsidized for all, but strict entrance requirements in some disciplines can be hard for the poor to meet. State-supported health-care and retirement pensions are available to all, but although there are movements to change these systems, they still reinforce the traditional “housewife contract” by assuming that women will stay home and take care of children, the sick, and the elderly. The “modest” system in the United Kingdom is considered slightly less generous than the “conservative” systems found elsewhere in West Europe. The two are combined here but shown separately in Figure 4.19.

In countries with rudimentary welfare systems, citizens are not considered to inherently have the right to government-sponsored support. These systems are found primarily in South Europe and in Ireland. Here, local governments provide some services or income for those in need, but the availability of such services varies widely, even within a country. The state assumes that when people are in need, their relatives and friends will provide the necessary support. The state also assumes that women work only part time, and thus are available to provide child care and other social services for free. Such ideas reinforce the custom of paying women lower wages than men.

Post-Communist welfare systems prevail in the countries of Central Europe. During the Communist era, these systems were comprehensive, resembling the cradle-to-grave social democratic system in Scandinavia, except that women were pressured to work outside the home. Benefits often extended to nearly free apartments, health care, state-supported pensions, subsidized food and fuel, and early retirement. However, in the post-Communist era, state funding has collapsed, forcing many to do without basic necessities. In many post-Communist countries, welfare systems are now being revised, but usually with an eye to reducing benefits and to extending work lives past age 65.

The Future of the Welfare State in Europe Europeans do not agree on the goals of their welfare systems, or on just how generous they should be. Some argue that Europe can no longer afford high taxes if it is to remain competitive in the global market. Others say that Europe’s economic success and high standards of living are the direct result of the social contract to take care of basic human needs for all. The debate has been resolved differently in different parts of Europe, and the resulting regional differences have become a source of concern in the European Union. With open borders, unequal benefits can encourage those in need to flock to a country with a generous welfare system and overburden the taxpayers there. While many European countries are reforming their welfare systems, most remain among the most expansive and well-funded in the world.

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