The Modern Spirit of Europe

To a large extent, the history of Europe is the history of wars and  violence. The modern period contains many of these conflicts. It is only in light of this past that post-WWII Europe can be understood.

Many of our contemporary debates in America over social policy evoke frequent comparisons to our peers across the pond. Policy X works great there, so why can’t we adopt it? Conversely, policy Y caused problem Z over there, so we should not enact it here. These are, by and large, useful comparisons; however, there is a profound disanalogy between the ethos governing European thinking and animating our own.

There are many reasons U.S. social policy differs from most of Europe. Perhaps greatest among them is the experience of constant martial conflict that animated Europe for centuries, the legacy of which now plays a vital role in shaping the psyche of the European electorate. The rise of the post-war welfare state with its attendant pathologies makes sense when seen through the lens of history. A scared, battered, and exhausted European populace did not want laissez faire; after the destruction of two World Wars, they wanted what they perceived to be their fair share.

The tragedies of Europe serve as a powerful explanation for the nanny-state tendency of social policy in the aftermath of WWII. It is imperative that we in America understand this history and its driving forces. We should not allow our political opponents of either stripe to use European policy as a one-to-one comparison for that of the U.S.

There are significant respects in which we no longer hold the same values. We should consider the merits of each policy and it’s practicability in America rather than deferring to the European experience. We musn’t make the mistake of thinking we in America can replicate Europe’s politics, itself learned through centuries of experience: experience that the first Americans gladly shrugged off as the baggage of the Old World.