Cover -- Contents -- Contributors -- Introduction -- PART I: STATE -- SECTION I: DEMOCRATIC FUNCTIONING -- 1 Democratic Quality in America and Europe -- 2 Liberalism and Democracy in America Today -- SECTION II: POLITICAL INTEGRATION -- 3 The Inequality of Electoral Participation in Europe and America and the Politically Integrative Functions of the Welfare State -- 4 Income Inequality and Participation in Elections in the United States -- SECTION III: PATTERNS OF PUBLIC EXPENDITURE -- 5 Patterns of State Expenditure in Europe and America -- 6 Comparative Analyses of Stateness and State Action: What Can We Learn From Patterns of Expenditure? -- SECTION IV: CITIZENSHIP AND WELFARE -- 7 Concepts and Practices of Social Citizenship in Europe: The Case of Poverty and Income Support for the Poor -- 8 The New American Model of Work-Conditioned Public Support -- PART II: SOCIETY -- SECTION V: THE GOAL OF FULL EMPLOYMENT -- 9 Welfare and Employment: A European Dilemma? -- 10 Fulfilling the Ballyhoo of a Peak Economy? The U.S. Economic Model -- SECTION VI: INEQUALITY AND MOBILITY -- 11 Egalitarianism versus Economic Dynamics? An Empirical Assessment of the Friedman Conjecture -- 12 Are the Inequality and Mobility Trends of the United States in the European Union's Future? -- SECTION VII: EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY -- 13 Education in Europe and the Lisbon Benchmarks -- 14 The U.S. Educational System: Can it be a Model for Europe? -- SECTION VIII: IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION -- 15 Different Countries, Different Groups, Same Mechanisms? The Structural Assimilation of the Second Generation in Europe (D, F, GB) and the United States -- 16 Immigration and Nativism in the United States and Europe: Demography and Globalization versus the Nation-State -- SECTION IX: CONCLUSION -- 17 The Epistemology of Comparative Analyses: What Do We Know? -- Notes -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Z.
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"Since the advent of the European Union, politicians have increasingly emphasized the notion of a European social model as an alternative to the American form of market capitalism, which is seen as promoting economic growth without regard for solidarity and social progress. As this political discourse has advanced, social scientists and academic policy analysts have raised questions concerning the extent to which the European Union and the United States social models exist outside the minds of diplomats and politicians seeking to stitch together a common identity. How much unity is there still within Europe after the Eastern enlargements have considerably increased economic and cultural diversity? To whatever extent one might discern a distinct set of commonalities that represent the core of a European approach, how different are the European characteristics of social, economic, and political life from those of America?" "Addressing these issues, this book systematically analyzes how much European countries and the United States have in common and how much variation we find within the enlarged European Union in eight central spheres of socioeconomic and political life: employment, equality/mobility, educational opportunity, integration of immigrants, democratic functioning, political participation, rights to welfare, and levels of public spending. Drawing on empirical analyses by American and European scholars who represent multi-disciplinary backgrounds, each of these topics is put under scrutiny. The results of this study illuminate points of convergence and divergence as seen from the perspectives of scholars from both sides of the Atlantic."--Jacket.