This book examines the European Left's attempt to think and give shape to an alternative type of European integration-a 'social Europe'-during the long 1970s. Based on fresh archival material, it shows that the western European Left-in particular social democratic parties, trade unions, and to a lesser extent 'Eurocommunist' parties-formulated a project to turn 'capitalist Europe' into a 'workers' Europe'. This project favoured coordinated measures for wealth redistribution, market regulation, a democratisation of the economy and of European institutions, upward harmonisation of social and fiscal systems, more inclusive welfare regimes, guaranteed employment, economic and social planning with greater consideration for the environment, increased public spending to meet collective needs, greater control of capital flows and multinational corporations, a reduction in working time, and a fairer international economic order favouring the global south. During the pivotal years following 1968, deeply marked by labour militancy, new social movements, economic crisis, and the unmaking of the 'postwar compromise', a window of opportunity opened in which European integration could have taken different roads. The defeat of 'social Europe' was a result of a decade-long social conflict which ended with the affirmation of a neoliberal Europe. Investigating this forgotten struggle and the reasons of its defeat can be useful not just to scholars and students eager to understand the historical evolution of European integration, the European Left, and European capitalism, but also to anyone interested in building alternative European and global futures.

About the Author
Aurelie Dianara Andry is Research Fellow at the Laboratoire IDHES, Universite d'Evry Paris-Saclay, and a member of the ANR-DFG-funded project 'Workplace democracy: a European ideal?: discourses and practices about the democratization of work after 1945'. Prior to coming to Evry, she completed her PhD in History and Civilisation at the European University Institute, Florence, was a Teaching Assistant at Universite Paris Sorbonne, and held a Research Associate position at the University of Glasgow. Her research focuses mainly on the history of European integration and the history of socialism and trade unionism in Europe.


Book Information
ISBN 9780192867094
Author Aurelie Dianara Andry
Format Hardback
Page Count 336
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 668g
Dimensions(mm) 241mm * 163mm * 24mm