*** ALAIN SUPIOT: The Spirit of Philadelphia. Social Justice vs the Total Market. Verso Books (Londres. Internet: http://www.versobooks.com ). 2012, 150 pp. £16.99, $24.95. ISBN 978-1-84467-754-2.

The “history” chapter about the city of Philadelphia in Wikipedia does not contain the Philadelphia Declaration, which gave the go-ahead to the extremely important reorganisation of the International Labor Organisation. Unanimously adopted in 1944 by government delegates, employers and employees, this declaration addresses all human beings by linking human rights and social policy. International economic planning is also included in the declaration.

The legal expert, Alain Supiot's, academic endeavours have been pursued at the University of Nantes and then at the College of France. He is a recognised specialist in labour law and legal theory and in this pamphlet (it was initially published in French at the Seuil in 2010 as the “L'esprit de Philadelphie. La justice sociale face au marché total”) he underlines the fact that European Union enlargement has undermined the political basis of the European social model, which was inspired by the Philadelphia Declaration that preceded it. According to Supiot, the principle of social justice has now been replaced by that of the free movement of goods and capital and the hierarchy of goals and resources has subsequently been reversed. He believes that this is down to a combined shift towards communism and neoliberalism and the replacement of the rule of law with the rule by law. This effectively means that wherever democracy is restricted, we cultivate an obsession with quantification and the chasm between government and governed grows deeper and we are left with a dog eat dog situation. This combination at a global level materialises into what the author calls the “total market”, which is close to what Chinese leaders propose in their economy of the Communist market …

Alain Supiot believes that everything, even religion, ideas, art and legal systems are now increasingly perceived as products in competition with each other at a global level, in the perspective of Darwinist selection. Whatever offers the most return on investment is what we are left with. Free trade is no longer anchored into the legal system but, on the contrary, is becoming the fruit of competition. The practice of “law shopping” has become a common practice that puts the different national legislations in competition with one another on an international market of rules and standards. The author is highly critical of the European Court of Justice for promoting this development by allowing companies to avoid the rules of the country in which they are operating by setting up their central office in another country where regulation is more in their favour. The irresistible rise in power of “governance” has also helped to eradicate the vertical hierarchy of norms to the advantage of legislation that ultimately produces nothing but statistics. In the different attempts to transform each quality into a measurable quantity, we are therefore throwing ourselves into a speculative cycle where the belief in qualitative representations is gradually replacing the realities on which these representations are supposed to refer. Alain Supiot therefore does not hesitate to describe a functional fundamentalism that is evolving, with a return to a kind of suzerainty instead of sovereignty and the subsequent drift towards the primacy of relationships over law. In this book there is therefore a lot of intellectual matter to get our teeth into in these 140 pages or so, which are full of intriguing and radical ideas. The book has the merit of looking at a number of developments and crises that have taken place in a different perspective and is therefore expected to create a certain polemic and require a certain analysis. The Union is also a laboratory in which different legal cultures come up against each other, which is definitely one of the main reasons for British opposition and who appear afraid of losing their Britishness in this area too. Perhaps we need to look for another city in Europe that would be happy to rename itself the city of “brotherly love” so that we can draft another Philadelphia Decoration there?

Lieven Taillie

*** OLIVIER CLERC: La gouvernance économique de l'Union européenne. Recherches sur l'intégration par la différenciation. Éditions Bruylant (Groupe De Boeck, 4 Fond Jean-Pâques, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve. Tel: (32-10) 482511 - fax: 482693 - Email: commande@deboeckservices.com - Internet: http://www.bruylant.be ). « Droit de l'Union européenne » series, No. 27. 2012, 773 pp, €120. ISBN 978-2-8027-3672-1.

This is a remarkable PhD thesis that won two prizes and was written at the University of Montesquieu - Bordeaux IV. Oliver Clerc is currently working as a senior lecturer at the Corsican University of Pascal Paoli, where, as a legal expert, he analyses (he also draws from other disciplines) the developments and failings of Eurozone governance. This baroque and limping construction that has compelled European leaders who inherited the Maastricht Treaty to manage a “double differentiation” of a geographical and judicial-institutional character (fully federalised monetary policy has to comply with the budgetary policies in state controlled spheres). As Professor Loïc Grard explains in his preface, “how can we keep the club going with those who are in Europe with its common-law and those that are out?” In his marvellously far-reaching and astute undertaking, the author exposes the legal meanderings and deficits of Economic and Monetary Union, which the global financial crisis and sovereign debt difficulties painfully confirmed. Olivier Clerc not only provides an incisive diagnosis but also shows daring. His proposals are also extraordinary appropriate, but even though some may consider them incongruous they would do well to at least examine them. He therefore claims that the level of interdependence of Eurozone economies is such that it, “would justify the coordination of their economic policies being subject to distinct and more far reaching procedures than those that involve all the different European Union member states”. He also points out that this is unavoidably part of the, “logic of differentiated integration”. In this perspective, “an institutionalisation of Eurogroup and enhanced synergy between its body and they Commission” is required as is, naturally, “an expansion in the prerogatives of European Parliamentary bodies to oversee the economic policy choices made at European level”. Many different areas are being explored but wouldn't this require a significant but modest increase in the Union budget? Answers on a postcard please … (MT)

*** IOANNIS NASIOULAS: Greek Social Economy Revisited. Voluntary, Civic and Cooperative Challenges in the 21st Century. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen.
Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2012, 156 pp. €27.80. ISBN 978-3-631-62355-8.

The deep crisis into which the country plunged saw 2011 as the year when the social economy took on a completely new dimension in Greece. It was subject to the first ever specific law on social entrepreneurship and reform of the rural cooperatives. In this study, a sociologist seeks to verify the real potential of this dynamic involving conventional voluntary, civil and cooperative activities. He also looks at the question of “materialising the economy of society from the political system and the market”. In the first half of the book, Ioannis Nasioulas illustrates the prevailing specificities of the social economy in Greece in an effort to examine their compatibility with the dominant models in Europe. He then provides a detailed analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of actors on the ground in this domain, the rural cooperatives and foundations, the mutual societies and other associations. The role of the Orthodox Church and the effects of European Union funding that benefit some of these organisations are also critically examined. Essential reading for all those eager to see whether Greece will be able to climb out of its sick bed. (PBo)

*** RALPH MILIBAND: L'Etat dans la société capitaliste. Analyse du système de pouvoir occidental. Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles (26 av. Paul Héger, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 6503799 - fax: 6503794 - Email: editions@ulb.ac.be - Internet: http://www.editions-universit é-bruxelles.be). "UBlire" series. 2012, 325 pp. €10. ISBN 978-2-8004-1529-1.

In 1969, Ralph Miliband, a professor at the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science, published this book. As Paul Magnette pointed out in his preface to this addition, this book became, “an extremely huge classic in the annals of social science”. Why do we need to throw ourselves back to the subject today? Quite simply because the issue of action by the large corporations in the world is crucial, including the banks, because of the way they can influence the political decision-making of the public authorities and because it may offer a means of providing a clear alternative to the logic of the market. These subjects are indeed quite appropriate in these times of crisis, insofar as the author seeks to explore possible avenues for regenerating Marxist thought and getting to the heart of the matter, which has been subject to significant neglect in Marxist circles: the question of the state… which also remains a matter of concern for certain currents of thought. (MT)