The remaining European countries are intermediate in terms of both geographical location and institutional structure.
   

These factors are reflected in the clustering of European countries. Traditional family patterns and rudimentary social insurance systems predominate in the southern cluster. Financial independence from the family and comparatively ambitious social programmes characterise the Nordic countries and, to a somewhat lesser extent, the countries of the intermediate cluster.

Figure 2 compares the European countries on the basis of a "traditional family index" comprised of five indicators, including average household size and the percentage of children below age thirty still residing in the parental home. The strongest traditional family patterns are to be found in Ireland, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece- all Catholic countries. The other extreme is exhibited by the Netherlands and the Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark and Finland. Norway joins the remaining European countries to form the intermediate cluster on this dimension.
    

A more general consideration is the size of the dependency ratio, i.e. the number of individuals aged 16-84 who are gainfully employed in proportion to those in that age-range who are not employed. A high dependency ratio means that there is a relatively large segment of the population which is not participating in the labour market, and thus requires support from the family or the state.
   

As indicated in Figure 3, dependency ratios are low in all of the Nordic countries, and high in most of the southern countries. The two exceptions are the United Kingdom and Portugal, which in this respect are not included in the southern cluster due to comparatively high rates of female employment.
   

The countries of Europe have been compared on the basis of a "female employment index" based on five indicators, including the ratio of male-to-female employment and the employment rate of mothers, both single and cohabiting. The resulting scores are charted in Figure 4.

Again, the three familiar clusters emerge from the data. At the low end of the scale are the Catholic countries of Ireland, Luxembourg and Southern Europe, all of which have large proportions of traditional families with full-time housewives. Norway was not included in this comparison, but the other Nordic countries ranked at the top on almost every indicator.
    

One implication of this development is that much of women's previously unpaid work within the family sphere has been transferred to the public sector, where it is now compensated. This is an unparalleled public investment in the economic independence of women. Of course, it is also associated with the decline of the traditional family, and has for that reason occasioned much debate.
   

The results included a runaway budget deficit, a four-fold rise in unemployment, and largely successful demands by neo-liberal interests for heavy cutbacks in the social insurance system. Those cutbacks have, of course, been implemented just when the protections of the social insurance system are needed most-- i.e. at a time when the labour market, due largely to a series of political blunders, has been unable to provide increasing numbers of willing and able workers with the means of supporting themselves.
  
  

The corresponding development has been the decline of the traditional family, which is interpreted by some as lamentable and/or harmful, and by others as a positive development which creates the necessary conditions for a variety of family forms. It is in any event the antithesis of southern European society, which combines a weak state with a weak market, and heavy reliance on the traditional family.
    
    

The difference between the three clusters with regard to poverty levels is even more distinct. Figure 6 summarises a comparison of household incomes below the poverty level, which is defined as fifty percent of the national average for disposable income.

The poverty rate averages about five percent in the Nordic countries, between 18-27 percent in the southern cluster, and roughly twelve percent in the intermediate cluster. As a consequence of neo-liberal policies implemented during the past 15-20 years, the United Kingdom is sinking to the Southern European level.
  
  

In the Nordic countries, on the other hand, young adults tend to leave their parents at an earlier stage, often before they have established themselves in the labour market or formed families of their own. In other words, young people become independent earlier in life, but pay a price during the establishment period with a significantly lower standard of living than their parents' generation. However, what this may mean in relation to the actual living standards of young people in the southern cluster of countries is difficult to say.

Most of the elderly in the Nordic countries also maintain their own households; but their poverty rates are very low due to the effects of extensive public sectors and social insurance systems, including comparatively generous pension benefits.
  
  
Concluding observations
   
The data reviewed here clearly indicate that, in Europe at least, the range of institutional structures is limited to three basic configurations of family, market and state.

The Nordic model combines an extensive social insurance system with labour market policies that promote full employment, equal opportunity and an equitable distribution of wealth. The broad-based labour market supports an extensive public sector and social insurance system by widening the tax base and limiting the need for direct intervention by social authorities. Thus, the lowest levels of socio-economic inequality and poverty in the industrial world are associated with a strong state and a strong market which reinforce each other.
  

Nevertheless, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark remain in a class by themselves with regard to the nature and extent of social programmes, employment levels, and the distribution of wealth. Nor is there any widespread political support for the current trend toward weaker national governments and less ambitious social insurance systems. Opinion surveys in Sweden, for example, have disclosed mounting public support for the public sector and basic social insurance programmes.

However, the Nordic countries comprise an island of egalitarianism in a sea of neo-liberalism, with its evident tendency toward increasing class divisions; and there are strong forces at work to ensure that the Nordic model of society is dismantled. At this point in history, the future of that model does not appear to be very promising.