The Social Democratic Road to Socialism

Abstract

There is considerable consensus that social democracy is in crisis. But there remains room for more analysis of what social democracy was and why it has become a hollow political shell. Born in the late nineteenth century, social democracy was the product of a particular stage of economic development corresponding with two main forms of class struggle between those with a stake in the system and between those with and without. It is now a spent force, having outlived its usefulness as the policy reflection of successive phases of economic growth and class struggle characteristic of the history of capitalism. No longer a meaningful political form for capital, social democracy parades as life-support, as it always has, but now without the possibility of following through on its promises. Its legitimacy is in question everywhere, a fact it cannot change or reverse. At best, it can offer only what other parties offer – more retrenchment, more concessions to the corporate sector and more discipline for the working class. In general, the crisis of social democracy around the world today appears to signal nothing less than the end of the once imagined ‘parliamentary road’ to socialism.