The Self-Transformation of the European Social Model(s)* ANTON HEMERIJCK E uropean welfare states are in varying need of reform. Intensified inter­national competition, ageing populations, de-industrialization, chang­ing gender roles in labor markets and households, and the introduction of new technologies, all pose severe strains to welfare state programs de­signed for a previous era. All European welfare states share three distinctive characteristics. Nor­matively, there is a common commitment to social justice . The vocabulary of reform is in most member states couched in terms of a solidaristic com­mitment that society will not abandon those who fail. The aspirations of full employment, universal access to health care and education, adequate social insurance for sickness, disability, unemployment and old age, and minimum resources of social assistance to prevent poverty and reduce so­cial exclusion, are widely accepted by European publics and deeply en­trenched in policy programs and institutions(Boeri, Borsch-Supan, and Tabellini, 2001). At the cognitive level, the European social model is based on the re­cognition that social justice can contribute to economic efficiency and progress . Against the neo-liberal assumption of a big»trade-off« between eco­nomic efficiency and social justice, European policy elites agree that social policy is an essential factor in promoting economic adjustment, that there is no contradiction between economic competitiveness and social cohe­sion. In the face of market failures the welfare state is able to insure social risks that private insurance cannot adequately cover(Barr, 2001). In ad­dition, it can reduce economic uncertainty, enhance the capacity to adjust and the readiness to accept change, bear more risks, acquire specialized * This article is a slightly shortened version of one originally written for the book Why we Need a New Welfare State, edited by Gøsta Esping-Andersen, Oxford, 2002. Printed by permission of Oxford University Press. ipg 4/2002 Hemerijck, European Social Model(s) 39