REVIVING DEMOCRACY AFTER 1945:
WELFARE CAPITALISM & EUROPEAN INTEGRATION
• The European Union is the greatest success story in
modern European history, but it never could have
succeeded without the process of economic recovery and
international consultation begun by the Marshall Plan.
• Another precondition was political stability, resulting from
ideological convergence in every European democracy
between large “people’s parties” of the moderate right
and moderate left.
• The “founding fathers” of the EU were Catholic
statesmen leading “Christian Democratic” parties.
• The successful policies of “welfare capitalism,” however,
were mostly developed by liberal economists.
Founding Fathers of Christian Democracy, the EU, & NATO:
Alcide de Gasperi
(1881-1954):
Italian prime
minister, 1945-53
Konrad Adenauer
(1876-1967):
West German
chancellor, 19491962
Robert Schuman
(1886-1963): French
prime minister, 1948,
& foreign minister,
1948-53
INITIAL POSTWAR
ELECTION RESULTS
COUNTRY
Com.
Soc.
Lib.
Chr.Dem.
Other
France
27%
24%
6%
25%
18%
Italy
19%
20%
6%
35%
20%
West
Germany
(1949)
6%
29%
12%
31%
22%
(In the 1950s the secularist Gaullists absorbed most of
the supporters of French Christian Democracy.)
Pope Pius XII (1939-1958) was America’s ally in the Cold
War, and the program of Christian Democracy was based
on the papal encyclical Quadragesimo anno (1931)
1. Anti-communism and anti-socialism.
2. The sanctity of all human life.
3. “Solidarity” – All good Christians should support the
formation of trade unions and farmers’ cooperatives,
and government welfare programs to alleviate
poverty.
4. “Subsidiarity” – Social problems should be solved by
the smallest social unit possible. Only if the family
and voluntary associations fail to solve them should
local government act, and only if local government
fails should they be solved by national government.
THE LIBERAL ARCHITECTS OF WELFARE CAPITALISM
Sir William
Beveridge
declared war
on poverty in
1942
John Maynard
Keynes (18831946)
championed full
employment
Ludwig Erhard
promised “Prosperity
for Everyone” as
German economics
minister
The Schuman Plan for the European Coal and Steel
Community (ECSC), published in May 1950, was devised
by JEAN MONNET (1888-1979)
1919-23: Deputy
Secretary General
of the League of
Nations;
1924-39: Liquor
exporter,
international
financier;
1940-45: Trusted
advisor of Churchill,
de Gaulle, & FDR;
first president of
the ECSC, 1952-55
Many Germans at first regarded the Schuman Plan as a
French plot to gain control of their industry:
“Two Ways of Reading the Schuman Plan” (1951)
When Adenauer first proposed joining NATO and a “Common
Market” in 1950, both ideas were very unpopular:
“Do you basically agree or disagree with the policy of
Chancellor Adenauer?”
German Social
Democrats sought to
persuade the USSR
to accept German
reunification:
“Forward, for a free
Germany”
(1949)
“No! France will not become a
colony! Americans back to
America!” (1952)
FRENCH COMMUNISTS
DENOUNCED YANKEE
IMPERIALISM AND WEST
GERMAN REARMAMENT
“WARNING! The
Wehrmacht is being
revived!” (1953)
“For your holidays, visit the
USSR, Land of Liberty”
(France, 1952)
“Stalin’s Victims Warn Us”
(West Germany, 1952)
THE CDU WON THE GERMAN ELECTIONS OF 1953 & 1957
“German Unity.
“All paths of Marxism lead to
Therefore SPD”
Moscow! Therefore CDU”
“NATO: His
Comrades, our
Allies”
(West Germany
gained admission to
NATO in 1955)
THE TREATY OF ROME (MARCH 1957)
ABOLISHED TARIFF BARRIERS AMONG THE SIX ORIGINAL
MEMBERS OF THE “EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY”
AVERAGE ANNUAL GROWTH OF GDP
COUNTRY
18701913
19131950
19501960
19601970
France
1.6%
0.7%
4.6%
Germany
2.9%
1.2%
7.8%*
U.K.
2.2%
1.7%
2.7%
2.8%
Italy
1.4%
1.3%
5.8%
5.7%
USA
4.3%
2.9%
3.2%
4.3%
Sweden
2.4%
2.0%
4.4%
4.5%
* Refers solely to West Germany.
5.8%
19791985
1.3%
4.8%* 1.6%*
1.2%
2.2%
SPENDING ON SOCIAL WELFARE AS A PERCENTAGE OF GDP
(including old-age pensions, jobless benefits, public health
services, and assistance to the needy)
1950
1960
1970
France
10.9%
12.7%
15.8%
West Germany
14.1%
14.9%
17.2%
Italy
7.9%
12.0%
16.8%
United Kingdom
8.9%
10.3%
12.9%
USA
4.0%
6.2%
7.5%
Japan
3.2%
4.7%
6.5%
“Go with the times. Go with the SPD”
(Balloting at the Godesberg Party Congress, 1959):
In 1959 the SPD endorsed NATO and dropped the
demand to nationalize heavy industry
Building the
Berlin Wall,
13 August 1961:
The East German
Communist regime
plugs the last hole in
the Iron Curtain
“Ich bin ein Berliner!” (JFK, Willy Brandt of the SPD, and
Chancellor Adenauer inspect the Berlin Wall on June 26, 1963)
“FIT [hair cream]
gives your party what
it needs. So give
your party FIT. And
then hold elections.
You’ll see: the voters
will at last do what
YOU want”
(satirical ad from
1963)
EMBRACING NATO AND THE COMMON MARKET
HELPED THE SPD TO PULL EVEN WITH THE CDU
60
50
40
30
20
10
19
53
19
57
19
61
19
65
19
69
19
72
19
76
19
80
0
CDU
SPD
France & Germany have
led the drive to
strengthen the
European Union.
In 1962 Adenauer and
Charles de Gaulle
(shown here in Reims
Cathedral)
agreed on a Common
Agricultural Policy
François Mitterand (socialist) & Helmut Kohl (CDU)
(here at Verdun in 1984) spelled out the goal of complete
economic union in the Treaty of Maastricht, 1992
STEPS TOWARD
INTEGRATION
1952: European Coal
& Steel Community
1958: Common
Market (EEC)
1962: Common
Agricultural Policy
1979: European
parliament elected
1992: All non-tariff
barriers removed
1999: Monetary
union
The European
Union Today
(the red
countries
retain
autonomous
currencies)
TRENDS IN PER CAPITA GDP SINCE 1900:
THE GAP BETWEEN RICH AND POOR WIDENS
$45,000
$40,000
$35,000
$30,000
USA
$25,000
France
Japan
$20,000
South Africa
$15,000
India
Ghana
$10,000
$5,000
$0
1900
1950
1973
2004