Efficiency and Justice in the Industrial World: v. 2: The Uneasy Success of Postwar Europe

Will European Union survive the stresses of high employment and the strains of German unification, and will tensions between the demand for social equity and market forces be resolved? These are some of the questions considered in this exploration of the efficiency-justice conundrum.

European market integration was originally seen as the way to overcome national enmities in the wake of World War II. Over time, it acquired the purpose of social melioration as well. Today, the advanced market societies are richer than they have ever been, yet each is driven by social and economic divisions as some groups thrive while others lose ground. The tension between the social demand for equity and security, and the market''s drive to burst the bonds of state regulation both internally and at the border post, has taken on new complexity. It is this issue that underlies domestic political struggles over privatisation, safety-net programmes, immigration policies and trade agreements. Will European Union survive the stresses of high employment and the strains of German unification? These are some of the questions Dusan Pokorny considers in this second volume of his exploration of the efficiency-justice conundrum.