It's not like there are no other paths, or that there even is one 'European path' for that matter. The Nordic countries took a very different path than UK did, for example.
When Sweden had a high growth, the taxes were low and it was much more of a strict capitalist economy.
When the taxes were raised to be internationally high in the early 70s, the growth crashed and Sweden fell quite a few places in GNP/Capita.
(I am Swedish.)