The Social Foundations of Europe
The construction of the welfare state in Europe cannot be explained solely as the by-product of contingent political compromises or of redistributive policies pragmatically designed to manage periods of social instability. Rather, it is rooted in a philosophical and legal tradition that conceives the political community as founded on bonds of solidarity and mutual responsibility. Within this cultural framework, social rights could emerge as legal claims intrinsically tied to citizenship, rather than benefits linked to specific policy choices.
The Solidarity Roots of the European Welfare State
Since the 19th century, European constitutional history illustrates how critiques of liberal individualism and contractualism supported an understanding of society as a web of social relations generating collective obligations as opposed to the political unity of self-sufficient individuals. Solidarist philosophy — in its French, German and Italian variants — played a decisive role in shaping this vision, advancing the idea of a political community in which solidarity arises from social interdependence. From this perspective, the state is not merely the guardian of negative liberties, but an actor responsible for creating the material conditions of equality.
Europe and the United States: Two Models of Social Protection
In continental Europe, the welfare state was legally structured around the recognition of enforceable social rights
In the United States, by contrast, the trajectory of political thought followed a different path, shaped largely by the predominance of individualist and classical liberal traditions. These approaches contributed to confining social protection to the realm of welfare policy, rather than constitutional law, and to the absence — at least at the federal level — of any project to constitutionalize social rights. The American welfare system thus developed primarily around the employment relationship or around narrowly targeted assistance to those in extreme need. The Supreme Court, moreover, has long been skeptical of the very idea that social rights might be judicially enforceable.
In continental Europe, the welfare state was instead legally structured around the recognition of enforceable social rights. Social benefits, labor protection and access to healthcare and education came to be understood as essential components of democratic citizenship. Post-war constitutions, more or less explicitly, translated this vision into subjective legal rights, reflecting an awareness of the close connection between social rights and effective participation in democratic life. The meaningful exercise of political rights, including the right to vote, presupposes access to education, health and basic social security.
A History of Civilization Not Without Its Distortions
This does not mean that the European model has always represented an unambiguous civilizational achievement. Distortions do exist. Authoritarian regimes have, at times, instrumentalized social objectives for nationalist and totalitarian purposes, while in more recent decades welfare arrangements have occasionally degenerated into forms of assistentialism and clientelism. Yet alongside these distortions runs a distinct European democratic tradition in which solidarity is understood as an emancipatory principle, aimed at fostering social mobility, inclusion and participation. In this tradition, freedom and equality are not seen as opposing values, but as mutually reinforcing.
How Much Inequality Can a Democracy Tolerate?
Today, this legacy is under strain from the transformation of capitalism, the precarization of work, and the growing influence of market logics over civil and political life. This raises a fundamental question: how much inequality can a democratic society tolerate? The cultural tradition that shaped the European welfare state offers a clear answer: inequality must be counterbalanced by robust protection of social rights, which is integral to the very substance of constitutional democracy. Europe has thus imagined the foundations of political unity not on purely contractual grounds, but on the political meaning of solidarity.
