The puzzling resilience of nations in the context of Europeanized welfare states

Few doubt that social protection in Europe is now crucially affected by the EU level of government. Mentions of the Europeanization of social protection, and of the prominent existence of a ‘European Social Model ’ (ESM) are common. Yet, after 50 years of coordination, the counterpart to this very significant Europeanization is a puzzling resilience of nations. When one leaves aside, for a moment, the systematic and deep influence of Community law (European Court of Justice case-law) nations have remained commanding actors in the field for various reasons. This phenomenon is seldom researched in-depth for its specificity and seems to be generally taken for granted. The traditional ‘inter-governmentalism versus federalism ’ debate certainly does not capture all of it. Reflecting on this point, at a time when social protection is everywhere in Europe a key – if not the key domain of national politics – leads one to re-visit the notion of ‘political culture ’ and use it as a key factor for the explanation of the protracted resilience of nations: this resilience is indeed not puzzling because political cultures are relatively closed and there is little chance that this situation will change in the foreseeable future. This article is based on a book, to be published in November, 2008, at Presses universitaires de France, Paris, La longue marche vers l’Europe sociale