Equality, Freedom, and Democracy

Front matter

LEONARDO MORLINO

Europe After the Great Recession

OXFORD

Foreword

In the intellectual life of a scholar, it is not infrequent for a research question to rattle around in the back of the mind for years. Then all of a sudden comes the realization that the time is ripe to tackle the topic, and that an attempt has to be made at presenting, discussing, and empirically analysing it. I will not go into the reasons why I think that this is now the right moment to address the question on the implementation of the two traditional democratic values, and their transformations over recent years, partly as a consequence of the economic crisis, and its prospective sustainability. Maybe in his Discorsi Machiavelli was only right when he recommends going back to values in times of crisis. There are, of course, other objective and subjective reasons, and the former will emerge directly and indirectly in the first chapter.

Here, I would like instead to justify why in a discipline where scholars more and more are publishing articles in journals, I considered it necessary to write a book, with all the consequences this entails. As from every possible angle writing thirty pages is a smaller task than writing 300, the first reason would be that I am a masochist and convinced that the group working with me looks like me. A justification closer to reality is that in my view the salience and complexity of the topic is such that it could not be analysed, together with its empirical cases, if not through the opportunity for in-depth discussion and the length that only a book affords. This is so even though even a book has to find ways to make long stories/ narratives short, possibly through proper, effective, and reliable quantitative data.

In other words, I still believe that after all the changes our profession has been going through in the last few decades, a book can still be a better tool of communication under some precise conditions, such as those that characterize this work. A book offers an opportunity and a constraint. It provides a structure where empirical reasoning can be adequately developed, imposing the time and the rhythm of going through it and working it out in detail. Empirical dimensions and theoretical insights are, by this means, kept tightly together.

The book is the result of the work of a research group directed by me and formed by Daniela Piana, Francesco Raniolo, Mario Quaranta, Cecilia E. Sottilotta, and Claudius Wagemann. Together we have been working for years on the quality of democracy at a comparative level, publishing various articles and books. This is the last, and we hope the most significant work. In addition to my direction of the entire research, there was a division of work among us. Piana mainly focused her attention on freedoms; Raniolo and Wagemann on equality; Raniolo and Quaranta on attitudinal data toward democratic values and democracy; Piana vi FOREWORD and Sottilotta on the European Union. About the book, in addition to the chapters written by me only, each one of the members of the group co-authored with me one or more of the other chapters. More specifically, Wagemann was the coauthor of Chapter 2, but Raniolo also contributed to it; Piana of chapters 3 and 6; Quaranta and Raniolo of Chapter 4; Raniolo of Chapter 5; Piana and Sottilotta of Chapter 7.

In thanking all those who helped us in the research, we would particularly acknowledge the thoughtful help of Francesca Sica for collecting the data on welfare. Also, Anna Geyer, Joschka Frech, and Marta Matrakova were essential for collecting the data on equalities; Mariafrancesca D'Agostino and Chiara Facello for helping us to gather data on immigration; and Luca Carrieri for checking the data on freedoms.

We would also like to warmly thank all the scholars, practitioners, and institutional actors who accepted the invitation to share with us their experiences, qualified views, ideas, and insights. Our conversations with policymakers helped us to challenge our interpretative hypotheses and enrich our analysis. A special thanks also to all the international organizations that made their datasets available to us. The activities of these institutions have opened new opportunities for research, which we are very willing and pleased to acknowledge.

Finally, our gratitude goes to old friends and colleagues who accepted the burden of reading the first draft of the book. Many thanks especially go to Dirk Berg- Schlosser, Moreno Bertoldi, Maurizio Ferrera, Anna Gwiazda, Liborio Mattina, Angelo Panebianco, Michele Salvati, Anna Sroka, and Eugenio Somaini. We would also like to thank the referees of Oxford University Press for additional suggestions. Their reading prevented misunderstandings and mistakes. Others may still be present. However, for those, the responsibility is entirely mine.

Florence, 20 January 2020