Aspects of the Changing Political Economy of Europe: Welfare State,Class Segmentation and Planning in the Postmodern Era

This paper examines convergences and divergences in the transition paths across Europe. The emphasis is on the changing relationship between politics and the economy in the regions of Europe and, more specifically, on the increasing penetration of politics in civil society and the consequences for patterns of social conflict, modes of competition between social and economic actors, work relations, planning policies and modes of social and political integration. The socio-institutional structures through which convergence has taken place, as well as the character of the present crisis differ significantly between regions. The differences are sought in historical trends of socio-cultural structures, and in patterns of conflicts and contradictions related to variations of welfare capitalism in North-Western Europe, the statist/paternalistic structures in Southern Europe, and the statist/bureaucratic structures in Central-Eastern Europe.