Contemporary Europe

Wolfgang Glatzer, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany

and

Jürgen Kohl, Max Weber Institute of Sociology, University of Heidelberg, Germany

In this abstract, we cover four points: (1) the outline of our contribution to the history of well-being in Europe; (2) indicators and procedures to measure and analyze well-being in Europe; (3) the influence of the European welfare state on welfare and well-being; (4) the "social dimension" of the European Union.

Outline of the History of Well-Being in Europe

The contribution starts with the discussion of well-being in Europe, referring to the terms well-beingand quality of life (which is nearly the same) but also the traditional concept of "welfare" and recent terms of "good life" and "good society." The area of Europe is defined minimally as the European Union (28 countries with 503 million people) and maximally as the European Council (47 countries with 820 million people). Typical indicators for well-being are compared and summarized for the countries included.

European Example for a Comprehensive Comparison of Countries with Objective and Subjective Indicators

Country / GDP
2005 / HDI 2005 / HWI 2000 / WISP 2000 / OSL 2000 / ABS 1995 / HLE 1995 / Average
Iceland / 4 / 1 / 4 / 7 / 3 / 2 / 2 / 1.9
Norway / 2 / 1 / 1 / 3 / 8 / 3 / 8 / 3.7
Denmark / 5 / 13 / 2 / 1 / 1 / 8 / 1 / 4.4
Sweden / 10 / 6 / 7 / 1 / 9 / 1 / 4 / 5.4
Austria / 6 / 14 / 5 / 5 / 4 / 10 / 3 / 6.7
Ireland / 3 / 5 / 12 / 12 / 2 / 6 / 10 / 7.1
Canada / 7 / 4 / 9 / 19 / 6 / 3 / 6 / 7.7
Finland / 11 / 10 / 2 / 4 / 7 / 18 / 6 / 8.3
Netherlands / 9 / 7 / 9 / 11 / 5 / 9 / 9 / 8.4
Australia / 12 / 3 / 7 / 17 / 11 / 7 / 5 / 8.9
USA / 1 / 11 / 15 / 20 / 9 / 5 / 11 / 10.3
UK / 8 / 15 / 17 / 9 / 13 / 11 / 13 / 12.3
Germany / 15 / 17 / 11 / 6 / 12 / 14 / 12 / 12.4
Japan / 13 / 7 / 5 / 14 / 20 / 15 / 17 / 13
France / 14 / 9 / 13 / 12 / 19 / 15 / 16 / 14
Italy / 16 / 16 / 14 / 7 / 15 / 17 / 14 / 14.1
Spain / 17 / 12 / 15 / 9 / 16 / 24 / 15 / 15.4
Slovenia / 18 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 14 / 12 / 17 / 16.9
Portugal / 20 / 19 / 18 / 16 / 17 / 19 / 20 / 18.4
Czech Rep. / 19 / 20 / 20 / 18 / 17 / 23 / 19 / 19.4
Poland / 24 / 22 / 21 / 20 / 21 / 13 / 21 / 20.3
Hungary / 21 / 21 / 21 / 14 / 23 / 21 / 22 / 20.4
Estonia / 22 / 24 / 25 / 23 / 22 / 22 / 23 / 23
Latvia / 25 / 25 / 24 / 24 / 24 / 20 / 25 / 23.9
Lithuania / 23 / 23 / 23 / 25 / 25 / 25 / 24 / 24

(Countries according to their rank order: GDP = gross domestic product; HDI = Human Development Index; HWI = Human Well-Being Index; WISP = Weighted Index of Social Progress; OSL = overall satisfaction with life; ABS = Affect Balance Scale; HLE = happy life expectancy)

(Western) Europe: the Homeland of the Welfare State

Historically, the idea of the welfare state originated in Western Europe, and, even today, we find the most developed welfare states in Western Europe. So, the welfare state can be considered a major achievement of European political culture and a structural characteristic of European societies.

Whether measured in terms of social expenditure ratios in GDP or by the scope of their social programs, West European countries (including Central, Northern, and Southern, but excluding Eastern Europe) rank among the most developed welfare states in the world. However, their development took place in different institutional forms. According to the well-known typology of welfare state regime types developed by Esping-Andersen, we find all “three worlds of welfare capitalism” in Europe today: an approximation to the liberal regime type in the United Kingdom, the conservative regime type in the Continental countries, and the social-democratic regime type in Scandinavia. These regime types can be distinguished by different institutional configurations stemming from different political-ideological values.

Hence, it is the task of this chapter(1) to elaborate the goal dimensions and preferences characteristic of the different welfare state regime types (found in Europe) and(2) to evaluate the performance of national welfare states, i.e., their impact on the living conditions of the citizens by means of objective indicators.Finally, attention should also be given to the aspect of how citizens themselves evaluate the performance of their national welfare states in terms of subjective satisfaction.

The Social Dimension of the European Union

Although the European Union was originally established as the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1957, it is in the meantime on the way to becoming a more comprehensive social and political community. This progression is reflected by the fact that the competences of the EU institutions have been broadened step by step to include more policy areas.

Although the competences for the core of established social security schemes still remain at the national level, new instruments have been developed to coordinate national policies in certain areas (e.g., labor market policy). A special feature of the EU policy-making process is the so-called “open method of coordination” (OMC) by which a political learning process from each other should be initiated that should eventually lead the member states to a path of policy convergence. In this context, a rather comprehensive system of social reporting and monitoring is being developed to provide a reliable information database for EU action programs.

Therefore, in this chapter we (1) give an overview of the EU social reporting activities and the structure of social indicator systems used to provide comparable information and (2) present some of the most interesting and significant results concerning the development of social conditions in the member states.