Overview

The Euro-crisis of 2009-2012 vividly demonstrated that European Union policies matter for the distribution of resources within and between European nation-states. Throughout the crisis, distributive conflicts between the EU's winners and losers worsened, and are still reverberating in European politics today. In Unequal Europe, Jason Beckfield demonstrates that there is a direct connection between European integration and the increase in European income inequality over the past four decades. He places the recent crisis into a broader sociological, political, and economic perspective by analyzing how European integration has reshaped the distribution of income across the households of Europe. Using individual-and household-level income survey data, combined with macro-level data on social policies, and case studies of welfare reforms in EU and non-EU states, Beckfield shows how European integration has re-stratified Europe by simultaneously drawing national economies closer together and increasing inequality among households. Explaining how, where, and why income inequality has changed in the EU, Unequal Europe answers the question: who wins and who loses from European integration?

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9780190494261

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Reviews

[a] thought-provoking and well-researched book * Anton Hemerijck, American Journal of Sociology * Beckfield shows why EU studies needs sociology more than ever. Unequal Europe delivers hard evidence on the imbalances brought about by the EU's regional integration project, that may now be leading to serious welfare state retrenchment across the continent. Beckfield's argument will not please EU advocates, but it makes a starkly persuasive case for why European institutions must come to grips with the inequalities in its midst."" -Adrian Favell, Chair in Sociology and Social Theory, University of Leeds Jason Beckfield's Unequal Europe marshals data to impressively show that much of the increasing income inequality in Europe has been the outcome of the policies of the member states of the European Unions to collectively create a ""technocratic capitalism"" in Europe. This careful work helps to understand why pro-nationalist and anti-European politics have risen in response as EU led policies have increased inequality."" -Neil D. Fligstein, Professor, University of California, Berkeley The political causes and consequences of increasing levels of inequality in industrialized democracies have, rightly, been the focus of a number of recent major contributions to the political economy literature. To this list we should now add Unequal Europe. In this book, Jason Beckfield convincingly argues that European integration has weakened the welfare state and increased, rather than mitigated, income inequality. The egalitarian capitalism often identified with Europe is undermined by a process of regional integration that prioritizes the making of markets and technocratic politics. The book is theoretically rich and empirically well supported, it will be required reading for those of us interested in inequality, redistribution and the future of European welfare states."" -David Rueda, Professor of Comparative Politics, Oxford University and Nuffield College 14/01/2019

Beckfield shows why EU studies needs sociology more than ever. Unequal Europe delivers hard evidence on the imbalances brought about by the EU's regional integration project, that may now be leading to serious welfare state retrenchment across the continent. Beckfield's argument will not please EU advocates, but it makes a starkly persuasive case for why European institutions must come to grips with the inequalities in its midst. -Adrian Favell, Chair in Sociology and Social Theory, University of Leeds Jason Beckfield's Unequal Europe marshals data to impressively show that much of the increasing income inequality in Europe has been the outcome of the policies of the member states of the European Unions to collectively create a technocratic capitalism in Europe. This careful work helps to understand why pro-nationalist and anti-European politics have risen in response as EU led policies have increased inequality. -Neil D. Fligstein, Professor, University of California, Berkeley The political causes and consequences of increasing levels of inequality in industrialized democracies have, rightly, been the focus of a number of recent major contributions to the political economy literature. To this list we should now add Unequal Europe. In this book, Jason Beckfield convincingly argues that European integration has weakened the welfare state and increased, rather than mitigated, income inequality. The egalitarian capitalism often identified with Europe is undermined by a process of regional integration that prioritizes the making of markets and technocratic politics. The book is theoretically rich and empirically well supported, it will be required reading for those of us interested in inequality, redistribution and the future of European welfare states. -David Rueda, Professor of Comparative Politics, Oxford University and Nuffield College

Author Information

Jason Beckfield is Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. He teaches courses on social inequality and quantitative methods.

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