This article stresses that, in today's European Union, a nationally or regionally based neo-corporatist revival would not bridge the democratic deficit in welfare governance. Using the example of employment, it describes trends that point at the changing character of `social Europe' as the site of multiple vulnerabilities. Such transformation would require speedy assessments of, and tailored policies towards, excluded social categories. It argues that work-centred institutional expressions of yesterday's welfare state, such as the traditional `social partners', cannot be expected to represent welfare demands and perspectives of hitherto politically isolated sectors. Further, issues of representation and democracy in the European context are reviewed.
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