The European Social Model- Best Of Both Worlds?

The European people are said to care most deeply about: peace, security, democracy, justice and solidarity. This is a big contrast to American society who adheres mostly with the principles of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. It is no secret that the Europeans and Americans are majorly contrasted in their way of life, which is clearly reflected in their culture, as opposed to the European social model, which binds Europeans together through many models that share broad characteristics.

The Social model is said to be divided into 4 groups, which represent the different parts of Europe who have chosen what is most important to them while still remaining under the EU. The social model sets out to reduce poverty, protect against labour market risks and rewards labour participation. However Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal are still faced with high unemployment rates, perhaps this is due to their differing interests which are based more heavily on pensioners and less on social assistance.

The EU social model seem to have the best of both worlds in some ways due to their overarching beliefs and values that flow across all parts of the model, however each segment are allowed to have their own priorities. Those in the Nordic model including the Netherlands, Finland and Denmark seem to the be the most wealthy states in comparison to the Mediterranean model including places such as Spain and Greece. It may be apparent that their differing welfare states could be the reason why those in the Mediterranean model are suffering such high unemployment rate.

Labour Movements

Labour Movements- By Liv

The topic of labour movements is something I personally find quite interesting. At first I stared at this topic blankly thinking about what I knew, then I realized that we are currently in the midst of a major labour movement- however this one isn’t leading to better conditions for employees it has been more detrimental to people and their professions in the past year especially.  

I then thought, how are trade unions linked with this movement? BBC claims that union membership has taken a massive decline from when it was at its highest (post world- war) to now. When I look at the economy at what it is currently I see many people being offered redundancies as their positions are now unneeded or companies can no longer afford to employ these people. This for obvious reasons has an effect on the density of union membership as jobs that used to be covered by unions are no longer there = less union membership. 

In my current job I have seen a rise in technology and competitors have a major effect on the success of the company, I know that this doesn’t really describe labour movements, but it does describe the way that changes to our workforce is resulting in a decline of union membership.