The European social model in decline: structural reasons
The European social model in decline: structural reasons

Summary/Abstract: The presented text draws attention to the structural causes, which make it extremely difficult to create a meaningful social dimension of the European Union. These include, for example, the ideological shift of social democratic parties to the right, the contractual adjustment of the European integration favouring the free market, and social nationalism of EU member states. Therefore, the factual validity Jürgen Habermas’s thesis that only a united Europe could face the neoliberal pressures of globalisation is also being questioned. Although this argument is normatively valid, the EU is in fact a neoliberal and elitist project. So the EU still has the potential to develop its social model, but this potential is not fulfilled — which can be demonstrated by the use of its soft power (or lack thereof ) to regulate global trends.

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