Europe and the Politics of Capabilities. Edited by Robert
Salais and Robert Villeneuve. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
328p. $90.
This innovative edited collection seeks to help shape the academic and
policy debate over the future of the welfare state in Europe by
introducing and advocating Amartya Sen's “capabilities
approach.” Since the editors' primary objective is to promote a
particular set of policies, there is little effort by contributors to
explain policy variation across European Union member states or over time,
which is the collection's main weakness. Rather, this distinguished
group of academics and practitioners evaluates European economic
development policies and prescribes a course of action consistent with the
capability approach.