Prospects and Limits of New Social Democracy in the Transitional Societies of Central Europe

Abstract

This chapter discusses the political history of the advanced Western world and what is usually referred to as “new social democracy,” or the “New Democratic Party,” may deserve the attention of political theorists and commentators. The notion of new social democracy is a broad concept, which often includes very different policies. Schroder’s party is not the same as the New Democratic Party, and of course the French socialists, if they deserve the label “new social democracy” at all, are very different from the American, English, and German version of the movements. The Christian Democratic and conservative parties lost the elections to “new social democrats” while in postcommunist Central Europe the last years of the century represented a crisis of the political Left. Under the circumstances traditional social democracy can perform useful functions in transitional societies. New social democracy is a response to neoliberal excesses in the scaling back of the traditional social-democratic welfare state.