Responds to Daniel Bell
Glotz, Peter
Europe is not lost yet. Daniel Bell's arguments are good, but not convincing. Bell's basic error lies in his hidden suspicion of the shape of the European welfare state. Without a doubt, in the...
...Since 1945, conservatives and liberals have governed in Europe far longer than social democrats...
...The more subs we sell, the more likely it is that we will be able to keep the subscription price at $22.00 a year...
...In my view, the old continent must accomplish three things above all if it intends to play a decisive role in the twenty-first century: • Europe must complete the process of unification...
...The romantic fear of technology of the early 1980s is transforming itself into a strategy of ecological modernization...
...A cultural revolution is necessary: a new stock market system, a revised insolvency law, venture capitalism, assistance through well-guided tax policies, and so on...
...The integration of Europe through computer technology is progressing...
...Europe needs wisely conceived immigration laws...
...Anyone who visits the departments of computer science and engineering in California universities will see the enrichment brought to the United States by the immigration from Asian countries, for example...
...Translated from the German by SIDNEY ROSENFELD and STELLA P. ROSENFELD Dissent's New Price Pressed by the exigencies of the market, we have had to raise the price of a single issue of Dissent to $7.50...
...However, it is still very much a question whether market radicalism, as Hayek conceived it, will really win out against European corporatism...
...The successes of the postcommunist parties in Central and East Europe (for example, in Poland and Hungary, but also in Slovenia) show that the peak of Thatcherism was only an episode, even in societies terrorized by communism for decades...
...The Treaty of Maastricht was poorly negotiated and could remain mere words...
...A modernization of the industrial structure is beginning...
...Bell's reference to the fact that the United States spends 15 percent, Japan 10 percent, and Europe 25 percent of its gross national product for social welfare says nothing about the long-term competitiveness of these countries or blocs...
...large portions of a citizenry that still thinks in ethnic terms oppose a purposeful policy of immigration...
...In the second half of the 1990s, the classical European political party system will have to be restructured...
...One is more sure of one's life in Sindelfingen, Arezzo, or Lyons than in Miami or Detroit...
...But one should not underestimate the elite institutions that underlie European growth...
...the traditionalist sector of the union movement will be up in arms against modern industrial policies (and the reforming of the welfare state...
...The new enterprises that were founded after 1945 were swallowed up by the old dinosaurs...
...On the other hand, a wellconsidered, properly organized immigration policy, coordinated on a European basis, could solve the problems that will arise around the year 2000 for the job market, the retirement system, and the infrastructure...
...FALL • 1994 • 451...
...Our large enterprises all came into being at the end of the nineteenth century...
...Against the background of European history, a population policy that follows the Hitler model, that is, one that aims at raising the birthrate of the Germans, French, Italians, or Dutch, will stand no chance...
...Since 1989, a revitalized European nationalism has been working against Europeanization...
...One might ask how long the United States will be able to live with a capitalist system that in the bottom third of society leads to brutal poverty, vicious aggressiveness, and rampant criminality...
...John Kenneth Galbraith has sufficiently praised Italian genius in "design," and the French bureau450 • DISSENT cracy has imbued the European Commission with its distinct flavor...
...The European economy is already implementing a significant adaptation of its cost structures...
...The claim that this will be impossible after the first ill-boding catastrophes and under pressure caused by suffering is entirely unprovable...
...At the moment, success is doubtful...
...But we have decided to hold the subscription price for individuals at its current level...
...It is reckless when comparing differing cultures to consider only economic costs and to ignore the fact that economic success also requires a minimum of social cohesion...
...To be sure, the "invention" of the European social state was an accomplishment of social democracy and the workers' movement...
...Savings for students are much greater...
...in their traditional mold, neither Social Democratic nor Christian Democratic parties are sufficiently capable of reform...
...After 1989, untenable promises were made to the East Europeans...
...While businesses with worldwide operations are constantly developing in the United States, the European industrial structure is petrifying...
...The German system of pure research constantly gives its society the chance to begin anew...
...Catholic social theory, social Protestantism, and the social-republican tradition of conservatism would likewise have failed...
...Nonetheless, Ralf Dahrendorf 's thesis of the "socialdemocratic century" (or half-century), which Bell has tacitly adopted, is false...
...dual" occupational training, carried out jointly by businesses and schools, produces a first-rate corps of skilled workers...
...If Europe continues to bungle in its industrial policies as it has in microelectronics or in high-definition television, Bell's pessimistic forecasts could become reality...
...Also, Europe has many strengths that Bell ignores...
...You can now get four issues of Dissent in the mail for a little less than the price of three issues at the newsstand or bookstore...
...Europe needs a new wave of industrial and economic expansion...
...A Europe that places its bet on cooperation has a chance...
...The LatinAmericanization of Europe does not appear likely...
...So the new price structure is designed to make subscribing more attractive—the economically rational choice...
...Without a doubt, in the next ten years the social welfare systems of the European heartlands will have to be intelligently restructured...
...Were it valid to speak of a "bankruptcy" of the West European social model, the bankruptcy would not be solely one of social democracy...
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...Without a doubt, such reforms are hard to achieve...
...With the exception of Margaret Thatcher, they have supported the social welfare systems (the first of which was created by Bismarck...
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...We lose money on single issues (which doesn't make us any less eager to sell them), but we still earn a margin on subs...
...It is by no means certain that good old Europe is deteriorating into a museum of cultural history...
Vol. 41 • September 1994 • No. 4
