The Quality of European Societies: An Overview

Abstract

In this chapter, we present a synthetic overview of the societal quality of European countries. First, we have developed a multidimensional “meta-index”, the Societal Quality Index (SQI), based on information from the System of Indices on the Quality of European Societies (SIQUES). This index integrates an enormous amount of information from the multiple composite indicators compiled in this book to estimate 14 different domains of societal quality. The chapter offers the quality level and rank of each European country in every domain. Secondly, we have developed a typology of European countries according to the level and pattern of their societal quality. The chapter shows the European Union is not a socially homogeneous reality, but one in which can be clearly distinguished several clusters of countries: Nordic, Continental, Mediterranean, Central and Eastern Europe, and Balkan. The Five Europes Typology offers a clear and distinct image of the social and geographic composition of the EU. This image can be of great help in understanding Europe, in designing social policies, and in shaping legitimate political discourses sensitive to its societal diversity. Awareness of the diversity of the five Europes is the only way to transcend the colourful mosaic of social realities that Europe’s nations and regions offer us, without falling into the fiction of a homogeneous and undifferentiated political community.