Growth and social cohesion: An open and needed debate...also in Europe

Abstract

This article analyses the relationship between the economic growth and social cohesion along the countries that constituted the European Union 15, over a long term period (1880’s-present). This relationship is studied from two complementary perspectives. On the one hand, growth’s intensity is considered. On the other hand, the impact among two central variables for the social cohesion is discussed: employment and salaries. The text concludes that the correlation between both ideas, too different compared to what the usual economy is supposed to be, has been, in those years and in that economical space, both weak and ambiguous, which suggests that a deep change has to be made, in relation with the contents and the quality of the implemented growing models.