Crisis Of Social Democracy Research Articles

Sweden’s Right-Wing Parties amidst the Crisis of Social Democracy in Northern European Countries

Sweden’s Right-Wing Parties amidst the Crisis of Social Democracy in Northern European Countries

Electoral fortunes of social democratic parties: do second dimension positions matter?

ABSTRACTThe dramatic decline in vote shares on the mainstream left in many recent elections has led to a renewed discussion about a crisis of Social Democracy. One popular argument is that Social Democratic decline is the result of these parties' liberal cultural positions and pro-EU stance, with both topics increasingly salient for their traditional voters, particularly among the working class. However, we lack comparative evidence testing this argument. In this paper, we combine CHES data on party positions with ESS survey data to analyze the electoral effects of Social Democratic parties' second dimension and EU positions. In addition, we focus on whether support from different socio-economic groups is sensitive to these positions. In contrast to much public debate, we find that more authoritarian/nationalist and more anti-EU positions are if anything associated with lower rather than greater electoral support for social democratic parties.

Rosa Luxemburg’s Concept of Spontaneity and Creativity in Proletarian Mass Movements—Theory and Practice

ABSTRACTIn her 1906 booklet, “The Mass Strike, the Political Party, and the Trade Unions,” Rosa Luxemburg described her basic concept of democracy and emphasized the importance of spontaneity in proletarian mass movements. According to Luxemburg, socialist party leaders should accept and support the spontaneity of the workers, as it would result in an increase in readiness for action and creativity on the part of the masses; it would also strengthen labor organizations. The strong connection between spontaneity and creativity in the proletarian mass movements is also found in other of Luxemburg’s works, such as “The Crisis of Social Democracy” (1915), her unfinished manuscript on “The Russian Revolution” (September/October 1918) and the “Spartacus Program” (December 1918). Analyzing the anti-war mass movements in Germany from 1916 until 1918, we can see that Luxemburg’s concept of the close connection between spontaneity and creativity became reality, especially during Germany’s successful November Revolution in 1918.

‘Divided Within Itself’: The Parliamentary Labour ‘Right’ and the Demise of Post‐War Revisionist Social Democracy in the 1970s

AbstractThe article seeks to identify a neglected dimension of the ‘crisis’ and schism of British social democracy in the 1970s from within the ranks of the parliamentary Labour ‘right’ itself. Accounts of the so‐called ‘Labour right’ and its influential revisionist social democratic tradition have emphasized its generic cohesion and uniformity over contextual analysis of its inherent intellectual, ideological and political range and diversity. The article seeks to evaluate differential responses of Labour's ‘right‐wing’ and revisionist tendency as its loosely cohesive framework of Keynesian social democracy imploded in the 1970s, as a means of demonstrating its relative incoherence and fragmentation. The ‘crisis of social democracy’ revealed much more starkly its complex, heterogeneous character, irremediably ‘divided within itself’ over a range of critical political and policy themes and the basis of social democratic political philosophy itself. The article argues that it was its own wider political fragmentation and ideological introspection in the face of the ‘crisis’ of its historic ‘belief system’ which led to the fracture of Labour's ‘dominant coalition’ and the rupture of British social democracy.

The Social Democratic Road to Socialism

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.

Labour's Pedagogic Project and the Crisis of Social Democracy in the English Labour Party

This article contends that the implementation of government policies is mediated principally by the state, the economy and social class but that these have all changed so markedly since 1945 that education can no longer be seen as having the reforming role attributed to it in the post-war years. The continued assumption that it does means that, were policies based upon Labour's characteristic pedagogic project to be implemented in government, they may well lead to disillusion. This would only contribute to, rather than help resolve, the crisis of social democracy in the British Labour Party.

Book Review: Europe: The Crisis of Social Democracy in Europe

Book Review: Europe: The Crisis of Social Democracy in Europe

The Crisis of Social Democracy and the Search for a Transnational Response

This article aims to analyze the crisis of social democracy with a specific focus on the opportunities that have appeared at the transnational level and to offer a critical consideration of the social democratic responses to the challenge of globalization The political integration of the European Union offered a new opportunity of responding to the challenge of globalization for the European social democracy at the transnational level. In this context, assessing the extent to which the Party of European Socialists (PES) could become an influential transnational party is crucial to envisage the future of a globalist social democracy. The article demonstrates that social democratic politics at the PES level is about contending individual member parties rather than pursuing a social democratic EU-oriented strategy and the PES’ main function is to operate as a coordinating mechanism and discussion platform for national political parties. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n1p173

The transformation of the Swedish political party system in the late 20th/early 21st century

107 This article studies the transformation of Swedish political party system in the 1980s, and aims to develop its typology before and after the transformation. The article identifies several key prerequisites for such transformation: among them, the crisis of social democracy and an increase in the nationalist feelings in society. The latter is caused by the negative effects of attempts at social integration of the migrants and introduction of the principles of multiculturalism. Ethnic tension manifested itself in the wide-spread support for the Swedish Democrats party in the 2010 parliamentary election. From a political party system dominated by social democrats, Sweden has gone to a system with two leading parties — the left-wing Swedish Social Democratic Labour Party and the right-wing Moderate Party. The Swedish Democrats position themselves as an alternative to the two party blocs headed by the ruling parties (the Alliance and the RedGreens). The study employs an interdisciplinary approach and uses the methods of scientific synthesis. Its findings can be of practical significance for politicians, social activists, and academics alike.

The British Labour Party, “Parliamentary Socialism” and Thatcherism, 1979–1990: A Visual Perspective

This article examines the British Labour Party's interaction with Thatcherism during the 1980s, harnessing posters from the People's History Museum and cartoons from the British Cartoon Archive that provide a unique insight into a political era dominated by visual communication and media‐generated imagery. The posters and cartoons illuminate the Labour Party's response to the breakdown of the postwar settlement, the crisis of social democracy, the decline of class‐based voting, the erosion of industrial militancy and the pre‐eminence of market forces. Contending that the Labour Party's adoption of a media‐led communications strategy fatally undermined the pursuit of parliamentary socialism, the article concludes that Margaret Thatcher's restructuring created the preconditions for the removal of socialist ideology from mainstream British politics.

US power and the crisis of social democracy in Europe's second project of integration

This article draws on the work of Poulantzas to argue that European social democracy is in crisis because European integration since the 1980s has been articulated within a relationship of structural subordination to US-led globalised financial capital, to which European capital has itself increasingly gravitated. This has also been the determining parameter of the state-as-social-relation, and contradicts the post-war welfare settlement. Against this backdrop, Europe has struggled to rearticulate a new social compromise and politics of social mediation. The attendant crisis of legitimisation has primarily benefited right-wing populism, which does not augur well for the health of Europe's synthesis of capitalism with democracy.

The 1970s and after: The political economy of inflation and the crisis of social democracy

The 1970s and after: The political economy of inflation and the crisis of social democracy

To change the world we need revolutionary democracy

John Holloway's book is a remarkable essay, thought-provoking and truly radical in the original sense of the word, of 'going to the root of the problem'. Whatever its problems and weaknesses, it brings to the fore, in an impressive way, the critical and subversive power of negativity. Its aim is ambitious and topical: 'sharpening the Marxist critique of capitalism'. The key philosophical chapters of the book deal with fetishism and fetishisation. Creatively drawing on Marx, Lukacs and Adorno, Holloway defines fetishism as the separation of doing from done, and the breaking of the collective flow of doing. This is a very insightful viewpoint; but Holloway seems to identify all forms of objectivity with fetishism. For instance, he complains that, in capitalism, 'the object constituted acquires a durable identity'. Well, would a good chair produced in socialism not become 'an object with a durable identity'? His refusal to distinguish between alienation and objectivation (cf. note 22 of ch. 4) (1)--a mistake the young Lukacs did not make, in spite of his late self-criticism of 1967--leads to a denial of the objective materiality of human products. Another powerful argument is his criticism of 'scientific Marxism', i.e. those theories which attempt to enlist certainty on the side of socialism, and which claim to explain and predict historical change according to 'scientific laws'. This section is one of the most important of the book, and a significant contribution to a critical Marxist approach to politics. Among the 'scientific Marxists', Holloway includes Kautsky, Lenin's 'What is to be done?' (1902), and Rosa Luxemburg's 'Reform or Revolution?' (1899). However, he seems to ignore the latter's pamphlet on 'The Crisis of Social Democracy' (1915), which represents a radical methodological break with the doctrine of scientific certainty, thanks to a decisive new formulation: the historical alternative between 'socialism or barbarism'. This essay is a real turning point in the history of Marxism, precisely because it introduces the 'principle of uncertainty' into socialist politics. Now I come to the main bone of contention, which gives the book its title: changing the world without taking power. Holloway suggests, at first, that all attempts at revolutionary change so far have failed because they were based on the paradigm of change through winning state power. However, as he acknowledges in note 8 of p. 217, historical evidence is not enough, since all attempts to change the world without seizing power have also failed, so far. He attempts, therefore, to ground his claim on the distinction, introduced in chapter 3 but which pervades the whole book, between 'power-to'--the capacity to do things--and 'power-over'--the ability to command others to do what one wishes them to do. Revolutions, according to Holloway, should promote the first and uproot the second. I must confess that I am not persuaded by this distinction. I think that there can be no form of collective life and action of human beings without some form of 'power-over'. Let me try to explain my objections. They have to do with the idea of democracy: a concept that hardly appears in the book, or which is dismissed as a 'state-defined process of electoral influenced decision making' (p. 97). I have to disagree. I believe that democracy should be a central aspect in all processes of social and political decision-making, and particularly in a revolutionary process--an argument presented by Rosa Luxemburg in her (fraternal) critique of the Bolsheviks ('The Russian Revolution', 1918). Democracy means that the majority has power over the minority. Not absolute power: it has limits, and it has to respect the dignity of the other. But still, it has power-over. This applies to all kinds of human communities, including the Zapatista villages. For instance: in 1994, after twelve days' fighting, the Zapatistas decided to stop shooting and to negotiate a truce. …

Discourse theory and the study of ideological (trans-)formations

The discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe, it is argued, is a model of discursive conflict: Political conflicts are understood as struggles between conflicting discourses that strive to impose their own system of meaning. This article starts by outlining this model as a theoretical framework as well as a set of instruments for political analysis. First the main theoretical concepts are spelled out and clarified. The article then turns to the issue of the rearticulation of the social democratic ideology during the 1990s. The so-called ‘crisis of social democracy’, a crisis that necessitated a transformation of this political project, is outlined together with some of the articulatory practices through which the renewal of social democracy took shape and the discursive background against which it has been articulated. To illustrate the contingency of the articulatory process, the article concludes with a summary of some contested assumptions of the new social democratic model. The overall aim of the article is to illustrate the feasibility and the added value of discourse theory for political research.

Modern French politics: analysing conflict and consensus since 1945

List of Tables and Figures. Acknowledgements. Abbreviations. Part I. Introduction. . Part II: A History of Conflict and Revolt. . France and modernity. Domestic conflict and international relations. Political ideology and political parties. The polarization of the labour movement and the patronat. Republicanism and manifestations of a more moderate history. An exceptional history?. Part III: Political Exceptionalism, 1945--1981. Consensus politics in Western Europe since 1945. French politics in the post--war era. The persistence of radicalism and the absence of Fordist compromise. Part IV: The End of Exceptionalism? The 1980s and 1990s. The decline of overt conflict. Explaining consensus: the 1980s as a moment of tripartite harmony. Consensus beyond tripartism. Part V: Social Democracy and the Left. . The history of social democracy. The nature of the left in France. Characterizing the Socialist Party. A crisis of social democracy?. Part VI: The Paradoxes of Gaullist Modernization. . Authoritarian aspects of de Gaullea s rule. The progress of political stability and democracy. De Gaullea s foreign policy and the uses of grandeur. . De Gaulle and the economy: modernization from above. The unevenness of socio--economic change. Part VII: The Historical Significance of May 1968. . Regis Debray and Gilles Lipovestsky: the ruse of reason. The results of May. The spirit of May and the Socialist years. Locating May historically. Part VIII: The Waning of Intellectual Commitment. The place of intellectuals in post--war political life. The decline of the left intellectual. The re--emergence of liberal political thought. Part IX: Conclusions. The end of history. Fordism and post--Fordism: the regulation school. Theorizing change. Appendices. Bibliography. Index.

The Crisis of Social Democracy and Its Reconstruction

This paper argues that social democracy is facing a structural crisis not only in Turkey but also in the international context. For this reason, as it is elaborated throughtout this paper, any attempt to reconstruct social democratic politics both ideologically and organizationally should discuss the question of crisis by taking into account the international context, that is, by focusing on the changing parameters of the state/society relations. In this paper, we aim to introduce a set of parameters which we take as of significance in understanding of the crisis of social democracy in Turkey, as well as in reconstructing social democratic politics capable of responding effectively both the problems of Turkish politics and the various demands voiced by different identities.

The Continuing Crisis of Social Democracy: Ontario’s Social Contract in Perspective

Conventional views of the choices available to social democrats counterpose the pursuit of power to ideological purity. In Canada such debates have been endemic. Even commentators sympathetic to a radical ideology depict it as an obstacle to achieving power, and hence to acquiring the ability to effect real change.

Central banking and the crisis of social democracy ‐ a comparative analysis of British and German views

With the demise of the post‐war ‘Keynesian accommodation’, social democratic parties are having to come to terms with the increasingly key role of central banks in the political management of markets. This article examines the differing views of the SPD and the British Labour Party to government‐central bank relations in terms of their differing national contexts. The second part interprets the results of a postal survey of MPs and MEPs from both parties relating to recent developments in national and supranational central banking and identifies significant contrasts between the two and important contradictions in perceptions of policy processes, notably within the SPD group. Such contradictions relate above all to the popularisation of the Bundesbank model of autonomy and the feasibility of (social) democratic politics.

Globalization and the crisis of social democracy: Explaining the development of the British and Norwegian labor parties’ eu policies in the 1980s and 1990s

Globalization and the crisis of social democracy: Explaining the development of the British and Norwegian labor parties’ eu policies in the 1980s and 1990s

Engaged History

Ira Katznelson urges labor historians to respond to a crisis in their field by returning to political, institutional, and state-centered history. This state of affairs has come about, he and others tell us, because of the dual challenge of “new social movements” and then the decline of labor movements, the crisis of social democracy, and collapse of communist states. Labor history is in crisis, he concludes, because class no longer provides the best categories with which to describe the world and the working class is no longer the principal historical actor.