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Southeast Europe’s economic backwardness and very slow industrialization prior to 1945 continues, even in recent research, to be attributed to an unproductive peasant economy and traditional peasant society. However, the radical paradigm shift in the view of peasants as agents of economic growth and of their ability to adjust to modern growth after 1960 has surprisingly never been highlighted in economic history research on the Balkan-states (Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Greece). Interpreting agricultural development as a mainly demand-driven process this paper argues that the potential for agricultural growth was much more restricted in the Southeast than the Northwest of Europe but that Balkan peasants seem to have exploited their growth potential as far as possible. There is a lot of evidence that the reasons for sluggish industrialization before 1940 were definitely not rooted in 'peasant traditionalism' as often claimed by Balkan elites and many scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Based on longitudinal data in the dimensions of state, economy and society it is analyzed to what extent European societies have certain features in common which distinguish them from the United States. For most social indicators the range of variation within the European Union is bigger than the gap between Europe and the U.S. Differences between countries with different institutional arrangements persist. In terms of employment and growth dynamics Scandinavian nations, which have similarly extended welfare states as Continental European countries, have performed similarly well as the Anglo-Saxon countries. Hence there are not only different social models in Europe, but also different pathways to success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]