Growth and citizenship: a hypothesis of reconciliation

Abstract

This paper investigates the conditions for the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy. The overall situation of the states belonging to the European Union presents many differences, determined by demographic, social, productive and economic changes. Moreover, every Country organizes its own welfare by grounding it on deeply-rooted and hardly equitable traditions.
However, there is a hard push towards a unified model of “active welfare state” that is not centered on relief but on individual responsibility and remunerated employment. Such feature would act as a guarantee of its correct functioning, thus responding to the changing competitive balance determined by the process of globalization and the internationalization of markets, as well as by deep changes involving factors such as production systems, labour market, family structure, and demographics. The eventual
synergy between the “active welfare state” and the strategy advocated by Europe 2020 for a “smart,” “sustainable,” and “inclusive” growth, could pivot on lifelong learning provided to the active citizenship by encouraging the empowerment of individuals. The perspective, within which this latter improvement is achieved, draws on equality and parity, hence subtracting knowledge and learning from being manipulated by profit-making together
with vicious solidarity and social ties with the rules of market economy.