Today, many people agree that the EU lacks solidarity and needs a social dimension. This debate is not new, but until now the notion of a 'social Europe' remained vague and elusive. To make progress, we need a coherent conception of the reasons behind, and the agenda for, not a 'social Europe',...

There is evidence-linking inequality to negative health outcomes and to a loss of trust in public institutions. Relevant causation runs both ways because institutional weakness makes it more difficult to redress persistent inequalities. In the period of dominance of neoliberal policies, the...