Postwar Western Europe has been far more prosperous than ever before in its history. Yet, each postwar decade has marked rarher sharp changes in Europe’s economic position. The 1960s were a decade of unprecedented growth, and the 1970s a decade of stagflation and external shocks. As we reach the end of the 1980s, this decade seems to have been one of transition. Major changes in economic circumstances forced Western European conuntries to seek ways to recast their fundamental economic structures and policies.
The essays in this book are about how Western Europe’s four major states saw their situation in the past decade and what national strategies they developed in response. Kurt Biedenkpf, Patrick McCarthy, Giorgio La Malfa and Robert Skidelsky cover West Germany, France, Italy and Britain respectively. David Calleo, in an introductory chapter, compares the major national concerns and differences, and relates them to Europe’s prospect for integration. Harold van Buren Cleveland’s closing essay contrasts American, French and German macroeconomic policies and highlights their often frustrating relationships.