Europe's Promise: Why the European Way Is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age [Paperback]

Steven Hill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 19, 2010

A quiet revolution has been occurring in post-World War II Europe. A world power has emerged across the Atlantic that is recrafting the rules for how a modern society should provide economic security, environmental sustainability, and global stability. In Europe's Promise, Steven Hill explains Europe's bold new vision. For a decade Hill traveled widely to understand this uniquely European way of life. He shatters myths and shows how Europe's leadership manifests in five major areas: economic strength, with Europe now the world's wealthiest trading bloc, nearly as large as the U.S. and China combined; the best health care and other workfare supports for families and individuals; widespread use of renewable energy technologies and conservation; the world's most advanced democracies; and regional networks of trade, foreign aid, and investment that link one-third of the world to the European Union. Europe's Promise masterfully conveys how Europe has taken the lead in this make-or-break century challenged by a worldwide economic crisis and global warming.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In a new book, Steven Hill extols the European social contract for better government services. Life in Europe is more secure, he argues, and therefore more agreeable." -- The Economist

“Steven Hill is a lucid and engaging writer. He makes you sit up and think." -- Financial Times

"Europe’s Promise marshals an impressive army of facts and comparative statistics to show that the United States is behind Europe in nearly every socio-economic category." -- Reuters International

“Timely and provocative...Steven Hill explains why in most areas, it is Europe's economic regulations and social values, not those of the US, that are the most popular models for new democracies. The oldest one should take note.” -- Foreign Affairs

"Steven Hill has just published a book, Europe's Promise, which argues that the European way is the best hope in an insecure age." -- The Guardian.

"Like a reverse Alexis de Tocqueville, Steven Hill dauntlessly explores a society largely unknown to his compatriots back home." -- Hendrik Hertzberg, The New Yorker

"An engrossing book...Hill has a gift for capturing cogent themes in a single image...he  examines the evolving trajectory since World War II of Europe's 'fulcrum institutions' on which their societies pivot." -- Providence Journal

"Hill's thesis is that Western Europe treats its people better in many ways than the United States does its people. Read, wonder and galvanize!" -- In the Public Interest

"An important new book...Steven Hill rebuffs many of the distortions we've heard for years about Europe's supposedly broken economic system. Europe has a vibrant, capitalistic economy — but one with a heart AND a brain." -- Oakland Tribune

"U.S. militarism has long been a core part of the American Way,” writes Steven Hill in Europe’s Promise, that compares the US and Europe.” -- Reuters International

"Hill is surely right in saying that Europe’s prosperous, peaceful, democratic social market economy looks attractive when contrasted with the excessively deregulated United States or with China's politically repressive capitalism." -- Financial Times

From the Inside Flap

"Steven Hill ends the transatlantic debate over which economic and political system is superior: Europe wins. While America and China fight for oil and minerals, Europe already achieves more with less. Indeed, the path to the American Dream is the European Way."--Parag Khanna, author of The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order

"Like a reverse Alexis de Tocqueville, Steven Hill dauntlessly explores a society largely unknown to his compatriots back home. Sweeping away the ideological posturing, he shows us exactly how the modern European Way works and the promise it holds for an America which has slipped to become, in terms of social, economic and energy policy, the Old World."--Hendrik Hertzberg, senior editor, The New Yorker, author of Obamanos!: The Birth of a New Political Era

"Europe's Promise should startle, inform, and galvanize Americans in raising the ante in favor of a political economy where people matter first."--Ralph Nader

"As Steven Hill compellingly argues in his excellent Europe's Promise: Why the European Way Is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age, Europe has become a dynamic, transformational force in the world and stands as a clear model of success on so many fronts that we must push reset in our assessment of Europe's course. Americans today should learn a bit about how Europe has quietly and incrementally added to its size and global weight and maintained an innovative approach to broad public challenges like renewable energy, capital punishment, social welfare, and even corporate dynamism."--Steve Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation, author of the political blog, The Washington Note

"Europe's Promise is a provocative and illuminating book that should lead Americans to think hard about our own assumptions and priorities. By closely examining Europe's economic and political practices, Hill reveals a new Europe that has become the world's leader during this century challenged by global economic crisis, climate crisis, and new geopolitical tensions. In these times of hope and fear, read this captivating book to discover new and creative models for building a better future."--Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation

"Hill's book is an elegant and counterintuitive manifesto for a new politics of interdependence that could take the world through the turmoil of the economic and global warming crises."--Mark Leonard, Executive Director, European Council on Foreign Relations

"What can the United States learn from Europe? If you believe what's said in Washington, the answer is 'not much'. If you read Steven Hill's intelligent, broad-ranging, and deeply researched book, you'll find the correct answer is 'a great deal'--and now is the time to learn it."--Jacob S. Hacker, author of The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Security and the Decline of the American Dream

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 488 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; First Edition edition (January 19, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520261372
• ISBN-13: 978-0520261372
• Product Dimensions: 1.1 x 6 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #377,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Steven Hill is a writer, lecturer and political professional based in the United States with two decades of experience in politics. Mr. Hill is a frequent speaker at academic, government, NGO and business events, speaking on a wide range of topics related to politics, economics, climate change, global complexity, and future trends. He is the author of five books, the most recent being "10 Steps to Repair American Democracy: A More Perfect Union, 2012 Election Edition" (www.10Steps.net). His previous books include the internationally-praised "Europe's Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age" (www.EuropesPromise.org) (selected one of the "Top Fifteen Books of 2010" by The Globalist) and "Fixing Elections: The Failure of America's Winner Take All Politics" (www.FixingElections.com), which has been called "the most important book on American democracy that has been published in many years."

Mr. Hill is a prolific writer and commentator who has been widely published and quoted in media around the world. His articles and opeds have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, Guardian, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, Christian Science Monitor, The Nation, Washington Monthly, Salon, Slate, Politico, HuffingtonPost, American Prospect, Die Zeit, International Politik (Germany), Project Syndicate, Prospect (UK), ESharp (Brussels), Le Monde Diplomatique, Hürriyet Daily News (Turkey), Prague Post, Courrier Japon, Taiwan News, Korea Herald, Toronto Star, Montreal Review, India Times, Burma Digest, Egypt Daily News, Roll Call, The Hill, Sierra, Ms., San Francisco Chronicle, Miami Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, and many other leading publications. He writes a monthly column for Social Europe Journal and a weekly blog for IP-Die Zeitschrift.

Mr Hill has been interviewed by many leading media outlets, including C-SPAN, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Fox News, National Public Radio, Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF), Netwerk (Netherlands), Dubai-TV, Democracy Now/Pacifica, Sirius, FireDogLake.com, Politico and leading daily newspapers Le Monde (France), La Croix (France), Vima (Greece), Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland), Lidové Noviny (Czech Republic), Der Standard (Austria), Today's Zaman (Turkey), Capitol Weekly (Sacramento) and others.

Mr. Hill has lectured widely in the United States and Europe, including to business, government, policy institutes, universities and NGOs, including the European Commission, UK House of Commons, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Greek government, U.S. Embassy, Brno, Czech Republic, European Ideas Network, European People's Party, Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament, Ritter Institut (Vienna, Austria), Foundazione FareFuturo (Rome), Institute for Regional Dialogue and Strategy (IPEDIS, in Athens), Heidelberg Center for American Studies (Heidelberg University, Germany), Goethe-Institut (Prague), German-American Institute (DAI-Heidelberg), Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, German Marshall Fund, World Affairs Council, Commonwealth Club, Cambridge Forum, Town Hall (Seattle), Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Economic Opportunity Institute (Seattle), Demos, Brookings Institution, New America Foundation, Bioneers Conference, Bay Area Council (business group), German American Chambers of Commerce, San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Silicon Valley Joint Venture and others. In 2010 he delivered the Jacquemin Seminar lecture at the European Commission.

Mr. Hill is cofounder of FairVote and former director of the political reform program at the New America Foundation. He is a graduate of Yale University and Western Washington University/Fairhaven College, and lives in San Francisco, CA.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 48 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It is a better way!!!! February 11, 2010

By William Hopke

Format:Paperback

Europe's Promise is an interesting comparison of the American and the European ideas vis-à-vis the "Social Contract." That is if you even think there is one any more, or are part of, what was once the social contract between American workers and employers. This idea, of an obligation from employers, the government and individuals to the "whole" is the subject of this book. It delves into why universal health care WORKS in Europe, but why it will not in the US. The answer is simple. In Europe the purpose of health care is to provide CARE for people. In the US the purpose of health care is to make a PROFIT. After all, you don't think the reason the health care INDUSRTY opposes a single payer system is because it won't work- it is because they WONT MAKE AS MUCH MONEY! And for those of you with no exposure to Europe, I have some. But the best example I can give you is that of my neighbor who lives across the street. He was on vacation in Rome. He had a heart attack while in Rome at dinner on night. He was taken to a hospital, had heart surgery, and then recuperated in the hospital before flying home. Cost - Zero. If you get sick in Europe you are taken care of. In Europe EVERYONE has health coverage.

The book rightly points out that what Europeans pay in "taxes" they get back in social benefits. Only a small portion of US citizens get the level of benefits that Europeans get. When you add up the cost of ALL taxes - federal, state, local, municipal, plus the cost for items such as health care, child care, education, what we pay in the US is just as much or more and what we get less, because we live in a "For Profit" society, not in a "for the General Good" society. Europe has no CEO's like that of United Health Group who make $100 million a year. Health care in Europe is non-profit. It is about health - not profit. Does anyone really think the US health firms are about health? If they were, they would be leading the way to provide coverage to all, not fighting every aspect of the current health care reform legislation.

Aside from health care alone, the book compares and contrasts the European way, the European approach, to many social, economic, and diplomatic issues in comparison to the US way. We, the US come up on the short end of the straw every time. And we should. Does anyone (outside of Texas and Wyoming) still think invading Iraq was a good idea? The Europeans, and much as I hate to say so the French, were against if from the start and they were right. European diplomacy has been based upon Joseph Nye's idea of "soft power" while the years 2001 to 2009 saw nothing but US hard power, for better or worse.

As the book points out, what has been called the "ownership society" is really just a euphemism for the "You are on your own" society. One need only look at the state of US today. 10 percent unemployment. If you are unemployed you are on your own. In Europe unemployment benefits and job retraining are much better. US employers actively seek ways to AVOID providing any type of benefits to their workers. While in Europe the types of benefits that our parents or grandparents got from their employers are still normal. Health insurance, vacations, holidays, sick time, pensions. While in the US you are pretty much left to take care of your self "on your own" because you have "freedom of choice." Good luck saving for health care, a vacation, and college for your kids when you are making $10.50 an hour working at Big Mart. Of course you pay lower taxes. But so do the AIG high rollers. And they surely pay lower taxes than you do.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Isn't it about time we rethink and reboot? A look at Steven Hill's eyeopening book June 11, 2010

By Dr. Frederick B. Lacey

Format:Paperback

I generally don't write to this site, but the ideas Steven Hill discusses in his book are too important for us Americans to ignore.

Since the days after World War II, when the US showed Europeans a peaceful way forward, I think we've increasingly lost our way.

We've become embroiled in one fortune-squandering war after another, from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan, and we're on track to get bogged down in even more such destructive wars in the very near future.

In contrast to Europe, we've outsourced millions of our good-paying, productive manufacturing jobs to China, India, and elsewhere around the world, and now millions of hard-working Americans are left to scrape by with minimum wage, non-union jobs at Wal-Mart, McDonalds and countless other such enterprises, often working two and three jobs just to get by.

Since Reagan and Bush, we've deregulated just about everything that was running well in our country, and imposed instead what its advocates adoringly call "self'regulation" - of the financial markets, the banks, the brokerages, the oil corporations, and yes, of the drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico, coupled of course with regulatory capture, i.e. the takeover, by the regulated industries themselves, of our formerly functioning regulatory institutions such as the S.E.C. (for Wall Street) and the M.M.S. (for the Gulf oil drillers).

I'm surprised to read in some of these reviews comments carping about sensible European regulations as "overbearing", but praising our deregulation as the trademark of "dynamic free markets" of a "free people" - that after Main Street has just been wiped out by greedy, essentially unregulated Wall Street, and the entire Eastern Gulf of Mexico has become an oil disaster zone thanks to greedy and essentially unregulated oil executives.

Let me just add one perspective here that the readers of these pages may not be aware of, regarding health care in Europe, which has been mentioned by several reviewers, because this does go to the core of Steven Hill's theses, and is a good indicator for how a society values its people.

As a US citizen, and a medical doctor living in Germany, one of the many European countries where health care is universally available for its residents at affordable rates, I might have some perspectives you haven't yet run across.

What I find most astounding about our US health care system is not only how many people don't have coverage (some 46 million, and going up). But rather, how fragile and precarious health care coverage is for so many people who think they are well insured.

How does our US health care system compare? Let's go through some important points in the universal health care system in Germany, which I'm very familiar with, having worked in this system for some 17 years:

Here in Germany you are mandated to have standard comprehensive health insurance: your employer pays half the monthly family premium, you pay the other half,

*you don't get rejected because of any previous condition,

*you don't pay more or less working for a large or small business,

*you don't pay more or less if you are male or female, black or white, German or foreign born, gay or straight,

*the rates don't go up if someone in the small (or large) business gets sick,

*health insurance is not a consideration when changing jobs or careers because you take the policy with you,

*you don't lose your policy if you get sick, if you become unemployed, or even if your employer goes out of business,

*you won't be billed for "out of network" services in hospitals or elsewhere - these services are part of your coverage, no matter which hospital or team of doctors treats you,

*you don't have annual, lifetime, disease-related, or disease-recurrence caps,

*you won't be billed at 20%, 30% or more for expensive medications ("price-tiered" pharmaceuticals), because there is no "tiering", legally approved pharmaceuticals are fully covered when you need them, even if they're very expensive,

*nor will you ever go bankrupt due to unpaid and unaffordable medical bills piling up, - that simply doesn't happen - you enjoy completely comprehensive coverage.

*Also, forget expensive copays ($48.00/year max. for doctor visits @ $12.00 per quarter, a few dollars per prescription, a minimal meals expense during a hospital stay.

*Forget too the denials, the constant slog of endless 0800 calls (yours and your doctor's) to your insurance company for requests for coverage or adjustments, wasting huge amounts of people's time, energy, and productive capacity every business day - this doesn't happen in Germany, because this is a comprehensive coverage system (which is an important reason why it's so efficient).

I might add that Germany is a democratic country with a freely elected government; its residents are free people - this is not "Russia". In fact, this is the country with long stretches of Autobahn without speed limits, right? (Here, it's your responsibility to drive safely, and most do.) People here freely change jobs, careers, and locations without regard for health insurance, and live free of the fear of going bankrupt or losing their homes or life's savings if they were to get seriously ill, because their comprehensive insurance protects them from that!

Germany and its residents are not going broke paying for this, either. On the contrary, this fair, efficiently run health care system costs roughly a third less per person than the US system - that's right, about 1/3 less per capita - despite (or because?) everyone is on board and receiving comprehensive health care.

That figure doesn't come from rationing, long waits to see a doctor, or long waiting lists to get an operation, either - that doesn't happen here. What that figure does reflect, however, is just how much waste, duplication, and gouging of consumers must be taking place in the US health care system every day.

My point in describing the German health care system is not to encourage you all to move to Germany, but to prove to you, that for one-third less money than you currently already spend, you should be getting comprehensive, universal health care, like every resident of Germany does (yes, including all immigrants!). But you're not, and if the health care reform law should be repealed or overturned by Tea Party Republicans, or ruled "unconstitutional" by the Roberts Supreme Court, tens of millions of Americans won't have access to universal healthcare in the future, either.

Isn't it time to face up to our national challenges as adults, and finally join the peoples of the 17 (seventeen!) other advanced democracies (not "Russia", but, yes indeed, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, Australia, Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan, etc.!) around the world, who already enjoy the benefits of universal, comprehensive, and affordable health care? Isn't it also time for us to start taking effective steps to ween our economy from the Oil Age? And isn't it also time to institute strong financial reforms to keep Wall Street greed from destroying the our, and the world's, entire economy yet again in the coming years?

Inform yourself, read Steven Hill's book, discuss it with friends in livingroom get-togethers, in classes, forums, and seminars. Get these facts, ideas, and models for moving our country forward out to your friends and neighbors. Let's learn the lessons from the disasters we've just experienced, and let's help get our country moving forward again. The choices are ours to make.

Dr. med. Frederick B. Lacey Jr.
Frankfurt am Main, Germany

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely Worthwhile Reading... February 11, 2010

By Myrtle AD

Format:Paperback

From the Financial Times, February 8, 2010

Review of "Europe's Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an
Insecure Age" by Steven Hill

Review by Tony Barber

(excerpt)

Steven Hill, director of the political reform programme at the New America
Foundation think-tank, has two purposes in writing this book. One is to set
out the case that Europe's methods of economic management, cradle-to-grave
social support systems, democratic structures, ecological consciousness and
temperate foreign policy are the way forward for the world. The global order
is being remade, he says, and what will emerge on the other side will be a
new world based on the European model. Europe is a beacon for humanity's
future, no less, and it holds the greatest potential for the planet.

Hill's second goal is to show that the US, far from being an example for the
world, is nowadays no model at all. Compared with Europe, he says, the
United States is behind in nearly every socioeconomic category. Its economy
is an obsolete, hyper-militarised model"and, even under Barack Obama, is
mired in an antiquated free market ideology.

US democratic institutions are "unrepresentative, divisive and
disenfranchising", characterised by de facto one-party fiefdoms and 70m
unregistered voters almost one-third of those eligible. The nation wastes
colossal quantities of energy and fails to provide decent healthcare for
millions of uninsured citizens. US foreign policy is trapped in a
Vietnam-era mentality of using military muscle and even invading nations as
a way of dealing with unsavoury elements".

No question, Hill makes you sit up and think. Unlike intellectually lazier
writers, he does not buy the argument that the 21st century belongs
inevitably to China. He is surely right in saying that Europe's prosperous,
peaceful and democratic social market economy looks attractive when
contrasted with the unbalanced, excessively deregulated US model or with
China's politically repressive capitalism, Russia's petrodollar
authoritarianism, Japan's corporate cronyism or conservative Islam. He makes
a perceptive point, too, when he says that American conservatives play up
Europe's difficulties as a way of suppressing discussion of radical change
in the US.Europe, with its affordable universal healthcare, unemployment
benefits, paid holidays and sick leave, childcare, time off for parents
after a birth and inexpensive university fees, has certainly built an
enviable form of social capitalism.

Hill is a lucid and engaging writer, and he recognises that not everything
in Europe smells of roses. For example, Europe faces formidable problems in
its declining birth rates and its reluctance, or inability, to integrate the
millions of immigrants needed to sustain its prosperity in coming decades.
Hill is right: the US model requires modernisation. But when it comes to
welcoming the world's huddled masses, Europeans could learn from their
American cousins.