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Joseph R. Wood
The German Marshall Fund of the United States
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The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) is a non-partisan American public policy and grant-making institu-
tion dedicated to promoting greater cooperation and understanding between North America and Europe.
GMF does this by supporting individuals and institutions working on transatlantic issues, by convening leaders to discuss
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March 2010
Joseph R. Wood*
The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Joseph R. Wood is a senior resident fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF). His work covers Europe, Eurasia, and
*
transatlantic relations. From 2005 to November 2008, Mr. Wood was deputy assistant to the vice president for national security affairs at the
White House.
What is it to be happy? What is a good life? These and leisure might shape diverging and converging
two closely related questions have driven human contemporary policy choices in Europe and the
endeavors ranging from philosophical writing to United States.
material improvement since the earliest recorded
human experience. They dominate, one way or It is important to establish that this paper is not
another, the efforts and the results of art, literature, mainly about the generally held perception that
science, sports, and music as well as what we think Americans work harder and spend less time on
of as more practical domains such as economics, holiday than Europeans do. To the degree that
How one views the
engineering, architecture, medicine, and, indeed all such an assertion is true, it is a relatively new
nature, purpose,
of the ways of spending time that comprise human phenomenon reflecting recent policies rather
than deeply based transatlantic cultural fissures. and relationship
activity. For democratic states, or states that exist
In a study sponsored by the National Bureau for of work and
to serve their citizens rather than the reverse, they
Economic Research, Alberto F. Alesina, Edward L. leisure is central
provide the context for policy decisions about how
Glaeser, and Bruce Sacerdote conclude: to answering
to provide the means of happiness and a good
life or to permit their citizens to cultivate those the questions
Until World War I, work hours per employee of what it is to
means themselves. were actually lower in the United States than
be happy and to
Waking human activity can be divided into in most European countries, including France
have a good life.
two general categories: work and leisure. In and Germany (Huberman 2004). Work hours
As such, work
contemporary times, this division often seems to per employee started to fall a bit more rapidly
in Europe than in the United States, but up and leisure are
equate to time at the workplace and time not at
until the late 1960s, work hours per employee fundamental both
the workplace, getting and spending, productivity
were about the same in the United States to the decisions
and idleness, labor and fun. But all of these
and Europe, including Germany and France individuals
simplifications understate the importance of these
essential concepts, work and leisure, which form (Huberman 2003).1 make for
the basis of all culture and of civilization itself. How themselves and
These authors equate “leisure” with time away from
one views the nature, purposes, and relationship to the purposes of
work, a useful measure for economists but different
of work and leisure is central to answering governments.
from the more ancient concept of leisure that will
the questions of what it is to be happy and to be used here. That said, the two concepts of leisure
have a good life. As such, work and leisure are may be linked in ways not immediately obvious.
fundamental both to the decisions individuals make The same authors also conclude:
for themselves and to the purposes of governments.
And, by extension, attitudes about work and leisure Legally mandated holidays can explain 80
will play an important role in shaping public and percent of the difference in weeks worked
private values, using “value” literally as what a (among the employed) between the United
person, government, or society considers being of States and Europe and 30 percent of the
importance or valuable. difference in total labor supply between
the two regions. …The effect of generous
This paper will sketch the intellectual history of
pension systems, which reduced participation
the concepts of work and leisure in the European
and American, or Western, contexts. It will then
1
Alberto F. Alesina, Edward L. Glaeser and Bruce Sacerdote
explore briefly, in a slightly speculative way, (2006).“Work and Leisure in the U.S. and Europe: Why So Dif-
whether and how differing attitudes toward work ferent?” National Bureau of Economic Research, p. 3.
Widely reported gaps between U.S. and European Oakeshott describes human beings as “creatures
productivity are also a fairly recent phenomenon, of wants. This world—the whole of it, all its
growing more pronounced only since the mid components without exception—he is disposed to
1990s. Some analysts attribute this recent trend to think of as material for satisfying his wants. It is
To trace the Europe’s slower adoption of a knowledge economy something to be used. It is something upon which
development of rather than to worker habits or mores.2 When he may impose his own purposes. It is something
measured on an hourly rather than annual basis, to be subjected to himself. It is almost an enemy to
work and leisure
some European countries’ rates of productivity have be conquered, and, having been conquered, to be
in the West,
exceeded American rates in recent years. exploited.” This conquest and exploitation fall into
we can return the category of work.
to two of the Could some policies have a cultural basis involving
basic sources of the intellectual history of the relationship between On the other hand, play and leisure are endeavors
Western thinking, work and leisure? Can transatlantic differences that do not aim to satisfy wants or serve practical
classical Greece and, at least as important, similarities on a broader purposes. Aristotle used “play” to mean recreation
and Judeo- level be traced to underlying ideas about the value or refreshment; activities that were essential for
of each? laborers to continue to work effectively and thus
Christian tradition,
to be counted in the domain of work rather than
or in shorthand, Work and leisure: A brief intellectual history leisure. As such, play was purposeful as an enabling
Athens and
As with almost all interesting questions, vocabulary activity for work. Where Oakeshott uses the word
Jerusalem. “play” to describe activities beyond work with its
is important at the outset. The distinguished
political philosopher Michael Oakeshott wrote in aim of satisfying wants, Aristotle and others have
an essay published posthumously in 1995: used the word “leisure.”
My main point has been to suggest that, To trace the development of work and leisure
apart from “work,” the activity of using the in the West, we can return to two of the basic
world to satisfy human wants, mankind has sources of Western thinking, classical Greece and
Judeo-Christian tradition, or in shorthand, Athens
devised or stumbled upon other activities
and Jerusalem.
and attitudes towards the world, the activities
I have grouped together as “play.” It is in Aristotle wrote extensively on the relationship
these activities that human beings have of work and leisure. The Greek word for leisure,
believed themselves to enjoy a freedom and schole, is the origin of the Latin, German, and
an illumination that the satisfaction of wants English words for “school.”4 In other words,
can never supply. It is not Homo sapiens throughout the West, the word for “place of
and Homo laborans, the clever users of the learning” is directly related to the Greek idea of
resources of the world, but Homo ludens, the
3
Michael Oakeshott (1995). “Work and Play.” First Things, Jun./
Jul. 1995.
2
See Bart van Ark, Mary O’Mahoney, and Marcel P. Timmer
(2008). “The Productivity Gap between Europe and the United 4
For an excellent discussion of this origin and much of the
States: Trends and Causes,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, intellectual history recounted here, see Josef Pieper’s Leisure, The
Winter, Vol. 22, No. 1, p. 25. Basis of Culture.
fairs, p. 100. Like Pieper’s book mentioned above, this book is an between Leisure and Authenticity on Heideger’s Thought,” Janus
excellent general discussion of work and leisure. Head, 10(1), p. 217.
9
Helen Gardner. Art Through the Ages, p. 396. William H.Cooper (2009). “EU-U.S.Economic Ties: Frame-
10
Americans turn more frequently to two institutions, Europe’s Religious Crisis, pp. 27–28.