Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

James Cronin is Professor of History at Boston College and an affiliate of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University.

George Ross is ad personam Chaire Jean Monnet at the University of Montreal, Hillquit Professor in Labor and Social Thought Emeritus at Brandeis University, and Faculty Associate of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University.

James Shoch is Associate Professor of Government at California State University, Sacramento.

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What's Left of the Left

Duke University Press

Contents

Acknowledgments.................................................................................................................................................viiIntroduction: The New World of the Center-Left James Cronin, George Ross, and James Shoch......................................................................1Social Democracy's Past and Potential Future Sheri Berman......................................................................................................29Historical Decline or Change of Scale? The Electoral Dynamics of European Social Democratic Parties, 1950–2009 Gerassimos Moschonas.....................50Once Again a Model: Nordic Social Democracy in a Globalized World Jonas Pontusson..............................................................................89Embracing Markets, Bonding with America, Trying to Do Good: The Ironies of New Labour James Cronin.............................................................116Reluctantly Center-Left? The French Case Arthur Goldhammer and George Ross.....................................................................................141The Evolving Democratic Coalition: Prospects and Problems Ruy Teixeira.........................................................................................162Party Politics and the American Welfare State Christopher Howard...............................................................................................188Grappling with Globalization: The Democratic Party's Struggles over International Market Integration James Shoch...............................................210European Center-Left Parties and New Social Risks: Facing Up to New Policy Challenges Jane Jenson..............................................................241Immigration and the European Left Sofía A. Pérez.....................................................................................................265The Central and Eastern European Left: A Political Family under Construction Jean-Michel De Waele and Sorina Soare.............................................290European Center-Lefts and the Mazes of European Integration George Ross........................................................................................319Conclusion: Progressive Politics in Tough Times James Cronin, George Ross, and James Shoch.....................................................................343Bibliography....................................................................................................................................................363About the Contributors..........................................................................................................................................395Index...........................................................................................................................................................399

Chapter One

Sheri Berman

The aim of this book is to figure out "what's left of the left," that is, what the left or center-left stands for and should aspire to accomplish in our current globalized world. Globalization is seen as particularly problematic for the left because it has thrown into question many of the left's traditional policies and principles. Many insist, for example, that the increasing mobility and internationalization of capital have permanently shifted the balance of power in society in capital's favor. As the exit options of capital grow, so does the bargaining power of employers vis-à-vis labor, thereby complicating efforts to regulate and control business decisions and development. Similarly, increasing international competition is said to make things like generous welfare states and high tax rates an impediment to efficiency and therefore luxuries that states can no longer afford. But perhaps more important than globalization's impact on policies traditionally associated with the left is its direct challenge to many of the postwar left's key ideological principles. Among the most striking features of contemporary globalization debates is the widespread belief in the primacy of economics. In the world envisioned by neoliberals, markets would be allowed as great a degree of freedom and as wide a scope as possible and states would be knocked from the "commanding heights" that they occupied during the postwar era (Yergin and Stanislaw 1998). Given the historic connection between social democracy and the use of the state to provide services, facilitate growth, and generally tame the market and temper its effects, the logic of this position is that at the beginning of the twenty-first century there is not much "left of the left" at all. In fact, a number of commentators have announced that "socialism is dead" and, as Ralf Dahrendorf pointedly insisted, "none of its variants can be revived." It is now time, according to Anthony Giddens, to begin the process of "burying socialism."

This chapter argues that such pessimism and the reading of history that underlies it are not merely premature but wrong. Indeed, the very conditions that have led so many observers to proclaim the left's demise provide an excellent context for its reexamination and perhaps even rejuvenation. This is because for all its purported novelty, the issue at the heart of contemporary globalization debates-whether states can and should dominate market forces or must bow before them—is in fact very old. Social democracy, the most successful version of leftist thinking and politics during the twentieth century, emerged from similar debates within the international socialist movement a century ago. It is only because these debates have been forgotten or misunderstood—at least until the onset of the global financial and economic crisis of 2008—that contemporary discussions of left and contemporary political alternatives are so superficial and intellectually impoverished, and why it is so important to refresh the democratic left's collective memory about its past. This chapter will endeavor to do just that, providing a brief summary of the emergence and rationale of social democracy. It will then use this history to provide a foundation upon which to begin thinking about possible paths forward for the democratic left today.

The Origins of Social Democracy

Social democracy's intellectual origins lie in a debate that began within the international socialist movement at the end of the nineteenth century. Like now, this was a period of rapid globalization. Spurred on by new technologies in communications and transportation, capitalism had developed renewed vigor and was rapidly spreading its tentacles across the globe. These changes made many question the "orthodox" version of Marxism that had established itself as the official ideology of much of the international socialist movement by this time. The most distinctive features of this doctrine (which was largely codified by Marx's collaborator and leading apostle, Friedrich Engels, and popularized by the "pope of socialism," Karl Kautsky) were historical materialism and class struggle, according to which history was propelled forward not by changes in human consciousness or behavior but rather by economic development and the resulting shifts in social relationships. As Engels put it, "The materialist conception of history starts from the proposition that ... the final...