European Capitalism Today: Between the Euro and the Third Way

Since the late 1970s, Western Europe's Golden Age of economic growth has plainly ended. "Euro-pessimism," "euro-sclerosis," and "euro-stagnation" were just a few of the epitaphs written for Europe at the end of the twentieth century. Among the attempts to revive accumulation were neoliberal projects embracing market flexibility, government restraint, and hard currency in Britain and Germany, followed by the offensive against the "Dutch Disease" in the Netherlands and crusades for modernization in the Southern cone. Other attempts were the various social democratic projects to spread employment through reflation, public sector expansion and active adjustment policies, notably in Sweden under Palme and France under Mitterrand. None of these endeavors of the 1980s succeeded in restoring rapid growth.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.