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European nations are undergoing rapid and fundamental changes in response to social, political and economic events that are occurring both within and outside the region. These changes are far-reaching in scope and, ultimately, are expected to result in a redefinition of "Europe" and what it means to be "European." Using the author's extensively pre-tested Index of Social Progress (ISP), the research reported in this paper: 1) identifies the major changes in social development that have taken place in 36 European nations since 1970; 2) contrasts Europe's recent social development trends with those of other major world regions (including Asia, Africa, Latin and North America, and Oceania); 3) using aggregate scores on the Weighted Index of Social Progress (WISP), identifies Europe's "social leaders" (SLs), "middle performing countries" (MPCs), identifies Europe's "social leaders" (SLs), "middle performing countries" (MPCs), and "socially least developing countries" (SLDCs); 4) identifies the major development challenges confronting Europe at the outset of a new decade; and 5) provides baseline data against which future developments in the region may be assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Inquisition was a unique institution, specifically Western European in origin and character. Nothing quite like it is found in the history of other world civilizations. Its origin and subsequent history as a specialized and differentiated religious-juridical institution depended upon a peculiar combination of changes both at the level of the civilizational structures of Western Europe, as well as more local events and processes within the sociocultural settings of the various European nations. This paper will focus on the origins of the Inquisition, rather than its historical vicissitudes in various countries from the thirteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Institutions derive their original contours from the rationales and ideas available in the civilizational environment. Once any institution has been established, it gains a permanent place among the "tools" available to a society and it can subsequently be put to new uses and adapted to new circumstances. It is therefore of particular interest to capture the institution at its point of original historical gestation and examine the reasons which initially bring it into existence. In particular, the present essay focuses upon the origins of the Inquisition viewed within the setting of and at the level of Western European civilizational rationales, structures of consciousness, and their related institutional orders.