Abstract
This edited collection is the result of three conferences which took place between 2004 and 2006 around the theme of ‘Rethinking social democracy’. The collection brings together a number of authors united by a broad concern with the question of how social democratic parties have responded to the more constrained political environment within which they have found themselves since the end of the ‘Golden Age’ of social democracy (some time around the mid-1970s). As this is an edited collection, there is no overall argument presented, but rather a series of reflections from a number of alternative standpoints. As we might expect, each of the authors is broadly sympathetic to the means and ends of social democracy – that is, parliamentary politics in pursuit of a more equitable, regulated and democratic capitalist society – with the most important question facing each chapter being that of: whether social democratic parties have managed to maintain their social democratic credentials in the light of recent constraints; and why, and whether (and how), we might see an emboldening of social democracy at some point in the future? The responses to these questions range from the rather pessimistic contributions of Ashley Lavelle and Noel Thompson to the much more optimistic assessments (and the potential for social democracy to be renovated in a ‘neo-republican’ direction) contained in Paul Kennedy’s assessment of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party under Zapatero and Martin McIvor’s discussion of the influence of republicanism over the ideas of social democracy.
The book is divided into three parts. The first part examines some of the problems (economic, fiscal, electoral and ideological) that have faced social democratic parties since the end of the ‘Golden Age’. The second part provides an overview and assessment of some of the more important empirical developments witnessed by social democratic parties at both the national level (with chapters on French social democracy by Ben Clift, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party by Paul Kennedy, the Swedish social democrats by Dimitris Tsarouhas, the German SPD by Hartwig Pautz, and the British Labour Party by Eric Shaw) and European level (with Gerassimos Moschonas examining the impact of the EU upon social democratic parties). Finally, the third part examines some of the insights that a more historical view might provide for those considering alternative social democratic opportunities and strategies in the present.
Of the empirical chapters, we find a number of positive assessments of recent social democratic party outcomes. Thus, Clift discusses the way in which the Jospin Government (1997–2002) was able to find opportunities for both economic intervention and redistributive measures as a result of a dual-level strategy it employed within the European Union. Thus, it was possible to achieve greater financial and economic credibility as a result of France’s EU-level membership of (particularly) EMU and the Stability and Growth Pact, while nevertheless employing a redistributive and re-regulatory strategy at the national level (most obviously in the form of the 35-hour week). In discussing the record of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) since its election to office under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in 2004, Paul Kennedy shows how the PSOE has been reluctant to depart from its largely orthodox economic policy, but nevertheless managed to carve out a social-liberal niche for itself within the Spanish party system through the promotion of gender equality, gay rights, the tackling of domestic violence and the introduction of an amnesty for over 700,000 previously illegal immigrants. Finally, in his chapter on the Swedish Social Democratic Party, Dimitris Tsarouhas shows how some of the more pessimistic analysts of the prospects for a social democratic resurgence in Sweden have over-stated the dissolution of the class compromise which sustained the Swedish model during its heyday. Thus, Tsarouhas highlights the Industrial Agreement signed in 1998 which, to a certain extent, re-introduced class collaboration following a prolonged period of tension dating back to the mid-1970s. In each of these cases, however, and perhaps typically of all evaluations of social democratic party performance, the question which arises is that of where to focus: on the achievements reached as a result of the social democratic strategy, or on the compromises that needed to be made in order to secure those achievements? Social democratic parties in France, Spain and Sweden each underwent a significant process of (to use Moschonas’s term in this volume) ‘de-social democratisation’. That they managed to secure certain achievements while in office as a result, therefore, needs to be assessed against the ground that was lost as a result of the preceding ideological moderation.
The final part of the book provides an excellent complement to the empirical chapters in the earlier parts. Here we find a series of chapters that provide a historical insight into some of the more theoretical discussions within the social democratic wing (and beyond) of the left. Each of the chapters seeks to discuss some of the strengths and weaknesses of these earlier attempts to instantiate a more equal and democratic society, which clearly bring with them lessons for contemporary social democratic policy deliberations. Thus, Ben Jackson’s chapter on ‘the rhetoric of redistribution’ shows how (contrary to expectations) arguments advanced by social democrats in support of redistribution have drawn more on arguments for a social patriotism that benefits the national interest (rather than a sectional one solely in the interests of the working class) in its pursuit of fairness. Adrian Zimmerman likewise presents an interesting historical overview of how attempts to introduce economic democracy have been central to social democratic programmes, and lessons that those seeking similar goals in the present might learn from such attempts. With its greater focus on the historical role of ideas within social democratic parties’ programmatic development, however, one might want further discussion of who is the historical agent that would re-introduce social democracy, and how they might overcome the obstacles that have placed social democratic parties in the defensive position they find themselves at present. That said, this edited collection provides one of the most well-informed (politically, historically, empirically) discussions of social democratic parties and social democratic ideas, and the prospects for advancing both. In bringing together some of the leading social democratic experts in the field, it will be essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how social democratic parties got to where they are today, and/or hoping that they might be ‘re-social democratised’ in the future.