A Viking We Will Go! Neo-Corporatism and Social Europe
By Eric Engle
In Viking and Laval, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) adjudicated the rights of labor and capital mobility under E.U. law. Both cases strengthen the single European market through economic liberalization to generate greater prosperity for all Europeans as part of the process of European economic and political integration. Labor and capital mobility create greater prosperity for all through more rational market exchanges. Free trade is good for goods and is even better for labor. A liberalized and fully mobilized labor market results in more productivity and greater wealth in the European polity, as well as interdependence and thereby deeper integration resulting in greater understanding and less conflict. The decisions, wrongly criticized by some as "bad for workers", are justified by the fact that they will benefit workers in Eastern Europe, consumers in Western Europe, and the Community as a whole by deepening integration. A key challenge for the European Union is to economically anchor and deepen the political restructuring of Eastern Europe by enabling the natural labor and capital movements which an open marketplace generates. Europe does this not with the failed neo-liberal...
Ralf Michaels'
2007 Collection
(edited with others)
has been praised as:
"…a well researched,
intellectually
engaging book,
comprehensive
in coverage and
a uniquely
fitting tribute
to Professor
Arthur Taylor
von Mehren."
