France Germany Political Economy

At the present time, the European Union (EU) is comprised of and directed by social democratic governments. For the first time Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, Europe's four most powerful countries, have social democratic governments. Social democrats are in power or in positions of co-power in almost all of the other eleven states in the Union except for two. Yet, social policy under social democracy has neither brought peace to Europe, as the Kosovo war demonstrates, nor has it increased equality as left and center-left politics continues to dominate social policy.

In Germany and France, as with most of the EU social democracies, social policies include the main objective of full-employment, i.e., the state providing a job for all seeking employment. With the onslaught of globalization it has become increasingly difficult for social democratic policies enacted by one country at a time to mesh with the mechanisms of capitalism and free markets. Still internal social differences and ideological confusion and demoralization continue to plague the social democratic policies and parties, both in France and Germany.

In both of these countries, social policies are designed for protection against abuse of power. The labor movement and social democracy are bedfellows who concern themselves with the abuses of capital's power and with the risks and adversities caused to workers by the job market. In the twentieth century, both Fra

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Category: Economics - F