Jacques Delors: narratives and politics of a ‘social engineer’

This article examines how the European Community (EC) responded to the perceived decline of the post-war Keynesian model of embedded capitalism. Recent scholarship on European integration and globalization challenges the idea of a linear shift from Keynesianism to ‘neoliberalism’, highlighting instead a more complex landscape marked by negotiation, contestation and the coexistence of competing policy frameworks. The article focuses on the discourse and politics of Jacques Delors who, as president of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995, played a central role in articulating a response to those challenges. His tenure offers a compelling lens for examining how his initiatives embodied a collective effort to reposition Western Europe within a global economic landscape transformed by international Reaganomics. Delors’ initiatives were shaped by ambiguity and compromise, reflecting both the possibilities and the limits of advancing a distinctively European path. Particular attention is paid to the symbolic and ideological dimensions of his language and political imagination. In doing so, the article contributes to ongoing historiographical debates on the narratives of European integration and their entanglement with broader transformations in post-war transatlantic relations.