European employment models are under pressure to meet new external challenges
and changing internal needs. Nine country chapters, covering the UK, Germany,
France, Sweden, Italy, Greece, Spain, Hungary and Austria, reveal that institutional
change in production, employment and welfare regimes is producing uneven outcomes.
These outcomes are found to depend not only upon the variety of capitalism
or welfare regime but also on actors political will, at national and
European level, and the models specific architecture. Although examples
of revitalization affirm the potential for institutional renewal, the prevalence
of partial and incoherent reforms is eroding European employment standards.
What is at stake here is the future of the European social model. The problem
here is not so much the EU social and employment reform agenda but its influence
on the organization of product markets and macro economic management where
its policies are constraining options for social innovation.