Changes in work and social protection: France, Germany and Europe

This article adopts a dual approach to the examination of unemployment insurance reforms in France and Germany. On one hand it looks back at the historical link between waged work and social protection which is characteristic of both systems; on the other hand it considers the impact of the European Employment Strategy on national reforms. The historical retrospective reveals the eminently political nature of social protection and its intimate relationship with a vision of society based on a nation of wage‐earners. That vision is now being called into question but the kind of alternative political project needed to breathe life into the idea of Social Europe has yet to emerge.     

Political trust,young people and institutions in Europe. A multilevel analysis

The constant decline of political trust has been shown in political sociology. Young people in particular seem to display lower levels of political trust, which is a challenge for the sustainability of democracy. Still, these levels of political trust among youth differ greatly from one country to another. This article therefore seeks to answer the following question: How can we account for cross‐national diversity with regard to young people’s political trust? To answer this question, I performed multilevel analyses based on data from the European Social Survey. I show in the article that cross‐national diversity stems from the institutional arrangements that structure entry into adulthood, i.e., what I call ‘youth welfare citizenship regimes’: The more inclusive is the youth economic citizenship and the more individualised is their social citizenship, the higher is young people’s political trust – which could buffer the decline in political trust.     

Single-parent,female-headed families in Western Europe: social change and response

Trends in single-parent, female-headed families in Western Europe are analyzed and compared. The authors "explore the 'single-parent family' phenomenon in Western Europe, the factors that account for the growth in the numbers of these families, how these families are perceived and the policy responses in the different countries; we also note some patterns." Data are from a variety of sources. Some comparisons are made with the situation in the United States.     

欧洲法律多元格局:国别法、欧洲法以及民间法典编纂

欧洲法是一部关于法律多元主义的发展史。早在中世纪的欧洲,罗马共同法就已吸纳了罗马法、教会法以及地方法的多种元素。当下欧盟法也糅合了官方和非官方规则,从而形成多元的法律格局。借助欧洲私法整合运动,相应的"欧洲私法共同原理"和示范法取得了一定的法源地位。然而欧盟政界不仅没有很重视这些非正式法源,反而割裂了"欧盟法"与"欧洲私法共同原理"的内在联系。另一方面,各种示范法文本在促进私法融合的同时也加剧了私法的分歧,因此学者需要进一步提高文本的逻辑性和协调性。