Antonio Lettieri : Austerity policies and structural reforms are leading to the Americanization of the European Social Model

Beyond the effects on social spending, the heart of attack to the European social model is in labour market reform, the mother of all structural reforms. Across the last two decades, bargaining and labour laws have substantially made flexible all aspects of work organization. But still two main taboos survive in a number of countries: limits to layoffs and reducing the wages set in collective bargaining. These are the ultimate limits that European Commission and ECB are committed to destroy. Their reference model is the American one with the hiring and firing freedom and the wages flexibility given the low union’s membership and the difficulties of collective bargaining. Paradoxically, the strategy of structural reforms of the European authorities has many similarities with that of US Republican Party, which blames Barack Obama for flirting with European-like social policies, as in the case of the controversial healthcare reform.

Mein Blog befasst sich in einem umfassenden Sinn mit dem Verhältnis von Wissen, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft. Ein besonderes Augenmerk richte ich dabei auf die Aktivitäten des Medien- und Dienstleistungskonzern Bertelsmann und der Bertelsmann Stiftung.