AVAILABILITY: Readily available

Publication Date: January 2010
Publisher: University of California Press
Binding: Paperback
Topics: EUROPE- SOCIAL CONDITIONS; EUROPE- POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT- 21ST CENTURY
Condition: Special Sale

Description: Since the end of World War II, a quiet revolution has been occurring in Europe. A world power has emerged across the Atlantic that is meticulously recrafting the rules for how a modern society should provide economic security, environmental sustainability and global stability for its many peoples. In this make-or-break century beset by a worldwide economic crisis, global warming and new geopolitical tensions, the European model has the potential to carry the world forward. In Europe’s Promise, Steven Hill explains Europe’s bold new vision, shattering myths and showing how Europe’s leadership manifests in the following areas:

Economic strength: The European Union, with its 27 member nations and a half billion people, has become the largest, wealthiest trading bloc in the world, producing nearly a third of the world’s economy – nearly as large as the U.S. and China combined. Europe has more Fortune 500 companies than either the US, China or Japan.

Better health care: European nations are rated by the World Health Organization as having the best health care systems in the world. Yet they spend far less than the United States for universal coverage, even as U.S. health care is ranked 37th -- just ahead of Cuba and Slovenia.

Real family values: Europe has figured out how to harness capitalism’s tremendous wealth-creating capacity so that its benefits are broadly shared. Hardly a "welfare state," Europe's "social capitalism" is an ingenious “workfare” framework that better supports families and individuals to help them stay healthy and productive during a time of rising inequality and economic crisis.

Readying for global warming: Europe is leading in preparing for global warming, with widespread deployment of renewable energy technologies like solar and wind power, conservation and “green design,” creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the process. Consequently, Europe’s ecological “footprint” (the amount of the earth’s capacity that a population consumes) is about half that of the United States for the same standard of living.

Robust democracy: After centuries of kings and dictators, Europe has forged political institutions and electoral methods that have produced the most advanced representative democracies in the world, fostering inclusiveness, participation, consensus, multiparty representation and policy based on broad public support.

Innovative foreign policy: Europe is transforming our very notions of “effective power.” With America’s “hard power” suffering setbacks, Europe’s “smart power” -- based on regional networks of nations and Europe’s own Marshall Plan for development -- has produced a “Eurosphere” with some 2 billion people – one third of the world – linked by trade, aid and investment to the European Union.

Over a 10-year period, author Steven Hill traveled back and forth to Europe to understand and research this unique European Way. In Europe’s Promise, Hill chronicles and illuminates for his readers a European revolution that is proposing a bold new vision at a crucial juncture in global affairs.

Europe's Promise shatters myths, here are three:

* “Europe has a weak, sclerotic economy” -- FACT:  Europe has the largest, wealthiest economy in the world, nearly as large as the United States and China combined; it has more Fortune 500 companies than the United States, China or Japan; some of the most competitive national economies in the world, according to the World Economic Forum; and a lower rate of unemployment than the U.S. (Germany 7.6% unemployment vs. 10% in the U.S.)

* “The European ‘welfare state’ hamstrings the economy” – FACT: Hardly a welfare state, Europe's economy and comprehensive social system are two halves of a well-designed "social capitalism" that is better geared than America’s “Wall Street capitalism” toward supporting families and workers -- keeping them healthy and productive -- in an insecure age of globalized capitalism. And the overwhelming evidence shows that has been good for the economy.

* “Europeans pay more taxes than Americans” – FACT: For their taxes, Europeans receive a seemingly endless list of benefits and services -- quality health care, decent retirement, more vacation, paid parental leave, paid sick leave, free or nearly free university education, housing assistance and much more -- for which Americans must pay extra via out-of-pocket fees, premiums, deductibles, tuition and other charges, in addition to our taxes. When you sum up the total balance sheet, you discover that many Americans pay out as much as or more than Europeans -- but we receive a lot less for our money. That’s one of the reasons many Americans are in debt, while Europeans have higher savings.

Steven Hill is Director of the Political Reform Program for the New America Foundation and author of '10 Steps to Repair American Democracy' and other books on politics. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Salon.com, The Nation, International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, The Guardian, and many other publications and websites.

Review(s): "Steven Hill ends the transatlantic debate over which economic and political system is superior: Europe wins. While America and China fight for oil and minerals, Europe already achieves more with less. Indeed, the path to the American Dream is the European Way." - Parag Khanna, author of 'The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order'

"Like a reverse Alexis de Tocqueville, Steven Hill dauntlessly explores a society largely unknown to his compatriots back home. Sweeping away the ideological posturing, he shows us exactly how the modern European Way works and the promise it holds for an America which has slipped to become, in terms of social, economic and energy policy, the Old World." - Hendrik Hertzberg, senior editor, The New Yorker, author of 'Obamanos!: The Birth of a New Political Era'

"Europe's Promise should startle, inform, and galvanize Americans in raising the ante in favor of a political economy where people matter first." - Ralph Nader

"As Steven Hill compellingly argues in his excellent 'Europe's Promise: Why the European Way Is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age', Europe has become a dynamic, transformational force in the world and stands as a clear model of success on so many fronts that we reset our assessment of Europe's course. Americans today should learn a bit about how Europe has quietly and incrementally added to its size and global weight and maintained an innovative approach to broad public challenges like renewable energy, capital punishment, social welfare, and even corporate dynamism." - Steve Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation,author of the political blog, The Washington Note

"'Europe's Promise' is a provocative and illuminating book that should lead Americans to think hard about our own assumptions and priorities. By closely examining Europe's economic and political practices, Hill reveals a new Europe that has become the world's leader during this century challenged by global economic crisis, climate crisis, and new geopolitical tensions. In these times of hope and fear, read this captivating book to discover new and creative models for building a better future." - Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation

"Hill's book is an elegant and counterintuitive manifesto for a new politics of interdependence that could take the world through the turmoil of the economic and global warming crises." - Mark Leonard, Executive Director, European Council on Foreign Relations

"What can the United States learn from Europe? If you believe what's said in Washington, the answer is 'not much'. If you read Steven Hill's intelligent, broad-ranging, and deeply researched book, you'll find the correct answer is 'a great deal'--and now is the time to learn it." - Jacob S. Hacker, author of 'The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Security and the Decline of the American Dream'